Arashi no Mae
by Onichun
Summary: Uzumaki Naruto, village pariah, manages to pass the first genin exam he takes at the academy, but how will he manage pass the real test? AU Part one
1. A team is conceived

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

* * *

The two girls were shivering in fear as they watched the men before them tearing through their teammates effortlessly, not even their jōnin teachers had lasted a minute against the opposition. The man who just had thrust a kunai through the brunette girls teammate turned around, giving the two young girls a lecherous grin that would forever be imprinted in their memories. The two girls only froze up as they saw the man's bloodied hand reach out for them as his grin grew wider. Just as the hand was about to touch the brunette girl with two red marks adorning her cheeks it flew of its arm, the man now screaming in agony before a sword was hefted through his stomach, slicing him in half. The two girls watched in amazement as the man's companions were cut down as well, however their amazement soon turned into fear as the masked persons who had killed the missing-nin that killed their entire teams closed in on them started to walk towards them, towering above them.

"Are you hurt?" the two girls heard a soothing female voice coming from one of the masked persons say as a hand was stretched out to the scared girls.

The brunette noticed that her companion was unable to do anything but sit there in fear, she herself not being much better off, slowly shook her head. The girls had been the rearguard and as such explosion that signaled the start of the ambush had sent the girls flying backwards out of further harm's way, their teammates had not been so lucky.

"Come, we'll get you back to Konoha immediately, I'm sure Hokage-sama will be relieved to hear that there was two survivors." The two stunned girls mutely let themselves be carried by the masked ninja towards their home village.

* * *

The Sandaime worriedly paced through his office, three days ago he may have sent three of the latest half year's batch of genin teams to their deaths, among them were a Hyūga as well as the heir to the Inuzuka clan. The cause of their death, a improperly classed mission, the cause of the wrong classification had been due to one of the ninjas entrusted to deliver the information had made a, according to him, quick stop at one of the red light districts on the way from the place where he had performed the investigation. The man had been punished for the miss, but he was sure that it wouldn't be the last punishment the man would see, he had so far only been punished for delaying his mission, if there had been any deaths because of his miss the Sandaime was sure that many clans would cry for the man's execution. If that was the case it would be a strong blow towards Konoha's perceived strength at the next chūnin examination. The old man had been hoping that at least the combat team would be nominated to attend to the next examination that was in three months time.

The old man's feeling were mixed when he saw the rescue ANBU team's scout appear in his office, bowing before him with his shoulders slightly sagged, apparently the team had arrived too late. The old man had during the years learned how all of his ANBU showed the success of their mission when they arrived in his office, especially the scouts were the ones the old man had specialized in reading.

"How many of them died?" the Sandaime Hokage dejectedly asked the masked man kneeling before him. The old man knew that the rest of the hawk masked man's team would arrive shortly.

"All but two were killed, Hokage-sama," the ANBU answered, his voice betraying no emotion.

"Who were the survivors?" the Hokage hesitantly asked as his mind was reeling in at the damage to Konoha's power and the emotional aspects of this failure. The Hokage had no doubt that it probably was two of the Jōnin teachers that survived; it was usually the case in events like this.

"Inuzuka Hana and Yūhi Kurenai," the ANBU replied just as the office doors were opened to reveal the man's team carrying the two girls just mentioned. It was with a grim mindset that the old man noted that the teams had been shattered, one person from a pursuit and recon team and one from the intelligence gathering team. Not much could really be done out of that and for the coming genin examination there looked like there really was only three potential genin that had the capacity of fulfilling the role of a pursuit team, meaning those three genin-to-be would be matched together in a team. The other potential genin were all more of combat specialists.

"Tsume-san will be glad to hear that her daughter survived," the old man said cheerfully, hiding his troubled thoughts from the people present. "Did they receive any injuries?"

"No Hokage-sama, the two have been shocked by the events but no physical harm has befallen them, we were able to intervene before that," one of the ANBU responded.

"You may take them to the hospital, I'm sure that they need a warm comfortable bed to rest in, Inu may I have a word with you?" the Hokage requested, dismissing the ANBU team as the captain stayed behind.

"What is it Hokage-sama?" the captain asked, his voice emotionless.

"I've thought over your request Inu and I've decided to allow you to return to Jōnin duties indefinitely, you may return the mask to me, as soon as I get the report the this last mission. As you know there is a genin exam in a week's time, you will be one of the potential teachers, is that understood?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama," the now former ANBU captain said.

"I believe your student is one of the boys attempting to take the test is he not?" the Hokage asked innocently. The man gave the Hokage a surprised look, he had no clue what the old man was talking about. _'Maybe he is going senile?' _he pondered.

"I'm talking about Uzumaki Naruto," the Hokage explained. He saw an emotion of recognition flash before the former captain's face. The old man could still remember back when he first had assigned the captain and his team to the protection of the boy, the captain had then begrudgingly accepted the mission, thinking no higher of the boy than as the demon that had killed the Yondaime. However as the captain was around the boy and protected him, doing it only because if the boy died, then so would he along with his team and the person who killed the boy. By observing the boy and his friendly and carefree attitude he eventually came to grudgingly respect the boy, he had never once felt any ill intent come from the boy and as the years passed the seasoned ANBU started to see the wrongs of his treatment of the boy. The boy bore no ill intent towards the village, nor was he influenced by the fox as many believed because of his prankster nature. No, the boy's ambition was to actually protect the village, to become the Kage of Konohagakure no Satō. The boy's pranks were merely a call for attention, and the boy didn't care if that attention was positive or negative, if only people started to take notice of him. As the boy was integrated into the ninja academy system the man along with his ANBU team was hoping to see betterment of the boy's treatment as he started down a path that was towards his goal. Aside from the old Hokage, one ANBU team and two civilians the boy received no positive feelings, the other ANBU were indifferent to the boy, a mission was a mission to most. As the man watched the boy being neglected over time, his ninja skills after two and half years being barely above those that had attended for six months, the ANBU captain had enough and decided to teach the boy from the side, leaving notes in the boy's home. Eventually he decided to step out of the shadow when he noticed that the boy was unable even with his notes help to keep up with the pace the others were learning in the academy due to the lacking help the boy received since he had no real ground to stand on since the two and a half first years were basically void as far as teaching came. That had been the start of a friendship between the two souls; silently the captain would admit to himself that the young blond had grown to be something like a younger brother to him.

* * *

Abarai Toroe was a patient man, but the boy standing before him was making him lose it. Not only had he managed the written test, something that everyone was sure he would mess up, especially since they had made sure to prepare a special test for the boy covered in a genjutsu. He had much to their surprise aced the target practice and made better than average in the taijutsu test. His endurance was something that none of the Chūnin instructors were willing to speak of, it was ridiculous how long the boy could last for being only ten years. Now Abarai was sitting behind the bench, staring wide-eyed at the sight before him. Before the brown-haired Chūnin stood one Uzumaki Naruto, Konoha's scapegoat, along with thirty clones, a technique that was considered impossible for the young blond to perform.

"So do I pass Abarai-sensei?" the boy asked gleefully as he ran to the desk.

"Shirai, check the clones so that they aren't just a ploy by the boy," Abarai told his companion who slowly rose from his seat and walked up to one of the clones,"

"They are solid!" Shirai exclaimed as he punched one, only for it to burst into water.

"Sorry Uzumaki-san, but we told you to perform Bunshin no jutsu, not Mizu bunshin," Abarai said smugly as he held the Hitai-ate he nearly had given the boy closely to himself.

"Abarai-san," the Chūnin heard a voice say sternly, sending chills down the man's spine. The usual warmth in that voice was gone, replaced by cold fury even if there was no malice in the voice, "not only did Naruto-kun perform a clone technique, he made one superior to the one taught at our academy, this technique isn't even common within Konoha as only a few have been able to learn this Kirigakure technique and here you are telling me that this boy who not only made three clones but thirty fail? Surely this can't be correct?"

"I'm sorry Hokage-sama, I thought that since we agreed that the technique being tested was bunshin they were strictly restricted to that and not any of its variations," Abarai said halfheartedly.

"Any clone is good enough, now give the boy his Hitai-ate. After that we shall discuss some of your teaching methods, I've heard some disturbing things from one of my Jōnin-senseis," the Hokage said.

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the Chūnin said meekly as he handed the blond boy the Hitai-ate.

The boy started to jump up and down in joy as he received the piece of cloth with a plate of metal adorned with the Konoha leaf attached. His eyes were brimming with tears of joy; he couldn't wait until he could tell the great news to the man with the weird mask that trained him, he was finally a ninja like he was. "Thank you oji-san," the boy said gleefully as he made his way out of the room, receiving a wave and a smile from the Sandaime.

The Sandaime had closely been watching the young boy's examination and saw how the teachers tried to sabotage his tests, only for it all to fail. No wonder they had given the prediction that there would be twelve genin candidates from this batch, now instead the Hokage would have thirteen potential genins. There was only one problem with that, who would be the unlucky one to end up in the team which had very slim chances to be accepted to become actual genin allowed to go on missions. There was really only one way to determine that, and that would be the students' grades. However that was for later, currently the Hokage had a Chūnin-instructor to deal with.

* * *

Shirai was standing before the class, Abarai had been pulled out of the educational system of Konoha the day before for wrongful teaching so it was Shirai that would finish the last things before the potential genin were allowed to know the teams in which they were going to through the trial for being real genin. As he read through the list of names a smile graced his lips. 'It never hurt us to have a backup-plan, you can't be here to watch the conclusion of this but I promise you that I will tell you all about it Abarai.' The young man said in his mind.

"I will now announce the teams in which you will be!" Shirai said, the class instantly going silent.

"Team one will be Sagara Tarosuke, Murozaki Senpachi and Hitsuga Mizuhiro. Team two will consist of Aburame Shigi, Kazama Akatora and Genjō Goei." Shirai now looked up from the paper towards the blond sitting in the back, his smile widening. "Team three, Shizen Ryōfu, Myosai Kaname and Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto sat in his seat, giddy ever since the announcement of his team, sure it was two girls but that didn't matter to the boy, he was finally on a team. He snapped out of his daydreaming of high ranking missions and ultimately becoming Hokage only when he heard Shirai tell them that their team leaders would be there shortly.

Naruto and the two girls he was to team up with had been waiting in the room for nearly three hours since the last team left the room before the door was opened to reveal a man with spiky silvery hair and a bored expression on his visible face.

"Ma, I guess you are team three," the silver haired Jōnin said as he spotted the three persons within the room. The two girls sat at one side speaking to eachother about the Uchiha boy two years bellow them while the blond boy say by his lonesome in the other part of the room.

"Finally!" Naruto cried out as he jumped out of his seat towards the Jōnin.

"Roof, now," was all the Jōnin said just as Naruto reached him, disappearing in a cloud of smoke. The boy hurriedly made his way the stairs where he saw the man sitting at the edge of the roof. The two sat there in silence for five minutes before the two girls made their way up, apparently not feeling very compelled to join their new team. As they sat down on the roof the Jōnin noticed that they made an effort to sit as far away from Naruto as possible.

"So, why don't we start with an introduction?" Kakashi asked, "I'll start to show you how it's done. My name is Hatake Kakashi and my likes are Icha Icha Paradise and my dislikes are people who don't appreciate Icha Icha Paradise, my dream is to meet the author of Icha Icha and get every single copy I have of Icha Icha signed, and maybe get a sneakpeak at the next book." Now the two girls started to creep away from the silver haired man, they had heard from that their mothers that those books were just dirty things old men read and anyone reading those should be avoided.

"Then I'll go next!" the blond boy declared, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto and my likes are training and ramen! My dislike is the three minutes I have to wait for my ramen to be done. My dream is to become the Hokage!"

The two males started to gaze at the two girls as neither of them spoke after them, just sitting there chatting about Uchiha Sasuke, obviously not caring about introducing themselves. Kakashi just heaved a sigh at the two girls before he decided to stand up, "Well, tomorrow meet me at training ground three, there we will perform the real genin test!"

"What do you mean real genin test!?" Naruto asked, hadn't he just passed the test?

"Yes, the real test, the one you did yesterday was only to see if you had the potential to be a genin, tomorrow we're going to have a survival test, the failure rate is sixty-six percent so prepare yourself and be there at 5 am," Kakashi said as he turned around, "By the way, don't eat breakfast, you'll throw up," with that said the Jōnin was gone, leaving a stunned blond and two gossiping girls on the roof. Seeing that the man was gone the two girls made their way to their homes.

* * *

The sandaime could only regretfully watch as Naruto was given his real test by Hatake Kakashi. The bell test was something that only some of the best student's could manage, and here Naruto ended up with two girls that had less than ten percents chance to become real genin this year. He had watched as Naruto tried to get the girls to help him take the bells from Kakashi, apparently the former ANBU captain that had taught Naruto had told him the importance of teamwork when trying to take on someone outranking them. However the blond boy received no help from the boy, in fact they avoided Naruto more than they avoided Kakashi who then had knocked out the two girls using a light genjutsu. In the end Naruto was taken down as well, the boy's taijutsu no match for the experienced Jōnin. _'Another failed team under __Kakashi__'_ the aging man noted as he watched Kakashi telling the three youths to return to the academy the day after where they would learn more about the meaning of being a shinobi.

It was an hour after the conclusion of Kakashi's test that the twelve Jōnin chosen to test them, and in case the team met success teach them.

"Tell me which teams passed," the Hokage requested as he saw that everyone was present.

"Team one passed their test just as expected,"

"Team two passed their pursuit test with flying colours,"

"Team six passed theirs as well,"

"Team eleven showed high genin level skills,"

The Hokage listened intently on his Jōnin as they spoke in more detail after he had noted the teams' which were now genin and eligible for missions. "Well then, you're dismissed, everyone that have a team should be prepared for missions tomorrow. The rest of you are back on the ordinary Jōnin roster. " the elderly man said and slowly the Jōnin filed out of the office. Now with that done he had to decide what to do with the two genin that had lost their teams a week ago. To his surprise however he wasn't allowed to be alone, one of the Jōnin had remained within the room after everyone else had left.

"What is it Kakashi?" the elder man questioned upon seeing the silver haired man standing there.

"It's about Uzumaki Naruto, I feel that his team wasn't fair. His teammates weren't willing to help him and avoided him even when he tried to seek them out. He showed what was needed to become a genin, but his team did not," the silver haired man explained. "Maybe you can put him in an existing team?"

The old man was suddenly stricken with a realization, he may just be able to allow Naruto become genin this year after all. "Kakashi, make me a signed report over his skills you saw during the test and I may just have a plan for Naruto that will allow him to become a real genin after all."

The silver haired man gave the old man a grateful smile before he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The Sandaime started to prepare for assembling a new team and he had to ready some transfer papers as well. There was a lot of things to do but hopefully he would be done by the following day.

* * *

The young woman was leisurely laying in the tree outside Konoha's ninja academy, supposedly waiting for one of her students. From what she had been told the boy arrived ten minutes before the start of the schoolday and as if on cue she saw the now sulking blond boy walking downtrodden down the path towards the academy.

He couldn't believe it, two days ago he had done the academy's genin test and succeeded and yesterday he had done what was referred to as the real genin test by the man that supposedly should have been his Jōnin-sensei, had his team not failed. So now he was walking towards the academy again, to go another full year there before he was allowed to take another test to become a genin. Just as he was entering the grounds he found someone standing in his way.

"Oi, you're in the way!" the blond boy said angrily, he was in no mood to be delayed.

"Where do you think you're going gaki?" the woman questioned, ignoring the boy's statement. Bothering to look up at the woman he noticed her Jōnin vest. The boy silently wondered what he had done for a Jōnin to come and stop him, what he remembered he hadn't performed any pranks that morning, yet. "You're coming with me today," Before Naruto had a chance to protest the woman had taken him by the collar of his shirt and was dragging him over the rooftops of Konoha towards the center of the village.

"Oi, where are you taking me you crazy lady!" the boy protested as he helplessly was being carried. The boy was given no response, instead the woman continued in silence.

* * *

Inuzuka Hana was anything but clued-up about why she was in the Hokage's office along with the girl she had been on a mission with a week prior. This morning she had been rustled awake by her mother that told her that she had been summoned by the Hokage for an important meeting about her future career as a kunoichi. The girl had been hesistant, she didn't feel very compelled to continue her career ever since the mission where she lost her entire team, a week ago she would most likely told her mother that she didn't want to continue as a kunoichi but as her mother had comforted her she had started to see that she couldn't let this failure shoot her down, no matter how heavy the blow had been to her.

"I'm sure the two of you wishes to know why I've requested your presence here," the Hokage said, receiving mute nods from the two girls. "From what I've understood you still want to continue your careers as ninja, is this correct?" again the response the elderly man got was nods from the two girls, this time they were more hesitant.

"As you know your teams which sadly were decimated a week ago were made considering all of your special skills, Inuzuka Hana being in a team molded for pursuit and recon and Yūhi Kurenai your team was made to gather intelligence. Now I can't find room for either of you in one of the existing teams, therefore you two, along with one of the recently graduated genin will form a new team, an experimental sort of team," the Hokage explained to the two girls.

"Please wait until your Jōnin along with your teammate have arrived before asking any questions, I would prefer to only explain this once if possible," the old man requested upon seeing the inquisitive look on the Inuzuka girl's face. Thankfully the girl stayed silent, a surprising feat considering her heritage, usually the members of the Inuzuka clan were very brash and straightforward. The three didn't have to wait long before a woman dressed in the standard Jōnin attire came through the window behind the Hokage, holding a blond boy under her arms came through the window and then unceremoniously dumped the boy on the floor.

"Here's the brat you requested," the woman said giving the aging man a wide smile before she turned her attention towards the two girls standing in front of the Hokage's desk. "So these two are the other ones. My my, isn't this boy lucky, he ends up in a team with only pretty girls," the insinuation didn't get lost on the Hokage who had to fight the thought of what he himself would have thought some years back when he was made genin.

"What do you think you're doing you crazy old lady! I'm gonna be late for the academy now, just think what sensei will punish me for not being there!" the blond boy cried out angrily, an anger that soon were thrown out in favor for fear as the woman now stood towering above him with what looked like flames dancing behind her.

"What did you call me gaki!?" the woman questioned as she punched her right fist into her left palm repeatedly. "I'll have you know that I'm twenty-three and no one, absolutely no one is ever going to be allowed to call me old!" the young blond could only gulp in fear, he was even too afraid to apologize, something which he never would have done but in case he would want to he doubted he would be able to.

"Chizuro, no matter how amusing it is to watch you scare your student half to death could you please do it later, I have a lot of work to do today, now we have a more pressing matter like explaining the makeup of this team," the Hokage said in a friendly and sugary manner that sent chills up the woman's spine, the Hokage was usually friendly but that was way too friendly. Looking towards the Hokage and his desk she saw the reason, the piles of paperwork was huge and it was only eight in the morning. She'd bet her whole monthly salary that the pile would only increase as time went by. The young woman started to scratch the back of her head sheepishly as she stood up by the two kunoichi.

_'Is she really a __Jōnin__?'_ the thoughts of Hana and Kurenai echoed within their minds.

"Now that you're all here I can explain to you about…" the Sandaime started before he was cut off by a loud yell from Naruto, asking what the meaning of this was.

"Naruto-kun, the proctor from your test yesterday told me that you personally was ready for the genin rank, however your teammates were not and he'd hate to see the potential he saw in you go wasted so I saw it fit to put you together with two girls that's been genin for six months now but a week ago their teams were in a part of an… unfortunate event," the Sandaime explaned. Unfortunate however didn't quite reach the level of failure the event a week ago was, three Jōnins and seven genins had been killed, a heavy blow for any village, especially when it was rookie genin.

"So I'm a genin? I'm allowed to go on missions?" the blond boy asked hesitantly, upon seeing the nod from the elderly man the boy nearly broke out yelling about how he had become genin, if he hadn't noticed the sullen look on the two girls he would've probably done so. Piecing together Naruto figured that the two girls' teams had probably been disabled or killed so he felt that he should show them a little respect by not being too happy over his luck since it was probably the death of six persons close to them that gave him a chance to be a genin.

"You three have been selected to see how far a combined intelligence, recon and combat team can go. Before this the Konoha teams have always been chosen by their specialization, at least until they are Chūnin or Jōnin level where the teams are specifically tailored for most missions. If this setup is successful we may continue having one of these teams. Now please follow Chizuro-san and she will get you started.

The woman promptly walked out of the office, the two girls and Naruto following her only when the Sandaime motioned for them to do so. Soon the woman had taken them to a training field in the middle of the forest surrounding Konoha.

"So kids, you heard the old man. We're going to be an experimental setup of a genin team. So why don't we introduce ourselves?" the woman said. "I'll start off. Well my name is Yukino Chizuro, twenty-three years young, I like clear nights and sake, my dislikes are early mornings and bad hairdays. My dream is to see peace in all the elemental countries so we shinobi aren't really needed. My specialization is in combat. Red-eyes you're next," the Jōnin said.

The red-eyed girl stared at the strawberry blonde woman in annoyance at the nickname, and as she saw mirth in the woman's green eyes as she let her annoyance show she reluctantly started to speak. "My name is Yūhi Kurenai and I am twelve and a half years old. I like training and honest people, my dislike is cakes. My dream is to become Konoha's premier genjutsu user. My specialization lays within the information gathering field," Chizuro nodded at the girl before motioning for the brown-haired girl.

"My name is Inuzuka Hana, twelve and a half years old. My likes are animals and early mornings, my dislike is people who mistreat animals. My dream is to become Konoha's best veterinary ninja. My field of specialization is tracking and recon,"

"Okay blondie, you're the last one up,"

If the boy was offended he didn't show it, much to Chizuro's dismay. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, ten years old! My likes are training and ramen! My dislike is the three minutes I have to wait for my ramen to be done and late Jōnins. My dream is to become the Hokage! I'm good at ninjutsu and taijutsu,"

"So, introductions done, how about the rest of the day off?" the Jōnin asked them sweetly, receiving nods from the three pre-teens. "Well you aren't going to get it, it's time to train, twenty laps around Konoha and after that two hundred pushups, sit-ups and squats, and after that you will be allowed to go home," the three genin just stared at her like she had grown a second head or something and as they still stared at her after five minutes she decided that some persuasion was needed.

"So, be outside the Hokage building tomorrow at nine, be late and you will find yourself doing thrice of today's training," Chizuro said cheerfully to her students as they slowly made their way from training field seventeen. All of them vowed to themselves that they would be at least half an hour early.


	2. The big mission

AN: I know, this may be a lame chapter but bear with me, I want to actually progress slowly with this story, giving the characters some depth. Once again, please review and give me your input, it helps me a great deal. Have fun reading it.

* * *

"So you think the boy cannot become like you? Not even the slightest?" the woman slurred at her companion as she downed another cup of sake before she poured herself another one.

"No one can corrupt the boy, I'm even willing to bet on that. I've tried, he's immune to any tactics, he even found my books boring," her companion said, something akin to tears running down his cheeks. He wasn't nearly as drunk as the woman, but still pretty close.

"How much are you willing to bet? I'm sure I can manage to do it within a year in my presence, after he's started to take a bigger interest in girls." the woman asked with sudden soberness in her voice.

"Fifty thousand ryō, I'm that sure about it," the man said.

"I'm on, be prepared to lose copy-ninja!" the woman exclaimed cheerfully. "So how is it to be an ordinary Jōnin now? I heard you failed another team yesterday, Kakashi."

"Well yeah, unfortunately I had to fail the jinchūriki, I doubt two of the members of that team even were really interested in becoming shinobi," Kakashi said regretfully. "He showed a great deal of promise and understanding for combat, I would even dare to say that he was a prodigy at combat. He used his techniques to set up intricate attacks, with the ability to change them on the fly. He almost managed to snatch the bells from me. That wasn't even the best part though; he understood the meaning of the test and was trying to seek out help from his teammates. However they were unwilling to help him," the copy ninja noted sourly.

"He he, well at least he got a chance to be genin, that boy. The old geezer deemed it fit to put Uzumaki Naruto, the Inuzuka heir and that red-eyed girl Yūhi Kurenai under my command. He must have used some pretty convincing words for the council to allow me to tutor them. Had it only been the boy, surely they would have seen no harm in it, after all, they would be happy if died along with me on some mission," the woman said bitterly.

"Well so how was the team, Chizuro-chan?" Kakashi asked her innocently. Apparently the council was still a pretty sour topic for the Jōnin. _'Most likely Hokage-sama circumvented the council entirely,' _it wouldn't surprise the silver haired Jōnin if the Sandaime had done just that, it had been done when Naruto was enrolled into the academy, much to the council's objections. It had been well within his power as Hokage to do so, and this matter was not very different, sure they could appeal to have the Jōnin replaced, or a member of the team. But it was also within the Hokage's rights to deny such a request.

"Well, I did get the Inuzuka heir, those guys are so damn easy to pester it isn't even worth it. The red-eyed brat though, she's going to be funny, I can feel it. Uzumaki, don't really know what to make of him, but he does have a pretty big ambition. Don't see why'd he want to become Kage of this village though, they treat him like crap. He would be much better off in Kumo or Iwa where they respect people with power. To my surprise they managed the test I threw at them yesterday, tomorrow I'm going to see just how long they will last," Chizuro said, a scary face overcoming her as she started to explained in detail just what she was going to do to her poor genin.

At the end of the younger woman's speech Kakashi didn't know whether he should just tell the three genin to not show up, he especially considered telling Naruto to leave the woman as soon as the team training was over. The torture she was going put him through, the horror!

"Warn them and you'll die, copy ninja or no copy ninja, you are still mortal." Chizuro warned in an unusual display of soberness as she had noticed Kakashi's conflicting emotions. How she'd manage to read him he doubted he would ever find out, she was one of the few that managed to do so.

* * *

Naruto, along with his teammates stood outside the Hokage tower diligently, and they had been doing so for the last hour. The three members of the team had the same thoughts, 'where is that damn teacher?' She had warned them about showing up late, and then she isn't in time herself. They waited another twenty minutes before they saw Chizuro staggering towards the tower, clutching her head occasionally.

"Not… a word! Let's go," Chizuro said, looking ready to chop of the head of anyone speaking to her, upon seeing the blond boy opening his mouth to say something. She didn't want to hear any complaints. _'Never again will I let Kakashi get me so damn drunk,'_ she silently promised, her last "clear" memory of the amount of sake bottles consumed had been fifteen bottles. Waking up in the silver haired man's apartment hadn't been a nice way to start her morning, to make matters worse her usually silky long hair was a mess upon waking up. She had partially redeemed it, but it still wasn't quite as she would like it to be. _'Well at least he had the decency to sleep on the couch.'_

The three genin silently followed the woman; she had seriously scared them earlier.

"Ah, Chizuro-chan, are you and your team ready for a mission?" the Hokage said cheerfully upon seeing the young woman along with her three genin entering the mission office, ignoring the storm cloud brewing above the Jōnin.

"Yes Hokage-sama," Chizuro replied hesitantly, she didn't trust herself just yet. She might explode on the Hokage, something that never was wise to do.

"Well I have a good mission for you, D-rank," the faces of the team lit up, except Chizuro's which darkened. Kurenai and Hana were more than happy to do D-rank, their last experience with C-rank had turned out rather… horrific. They never thought they would think that D-rank was appealing, but here they stood, happy for a D-rank. Naruto on the other hand was just happy over doing any mission, at last. "The Daimyo's wife's cat has run away, and you are to retrieve it,"

"You call that a mission old man!?" Naruto questioned, his face no longer so happy. He had been expecting some cool mission where he saved a princess or maybe upheld peace between nations. "That's something that her kids or servants could do! We're ninja."

"Naruto, D-rank missions are to build up teamwork, give you some pocket money and provide a easy solution for people who don't have the time to do something while at the same time benefiting the village. Without the D-ranks, where would you get money while you are training to be able to take on higher ranked missions, unlike Chūnin and Jōnin you are not assigned to regular jobs," the Hokage said calmly. Honestly the old man couldn't see why the boy was upset over the mission, he knew what D-rank entailed, at least he should know, having spent numerous hours with the Hokage who then had explained much of how Konoha's shinobi system worked.

"We'll have that done soon Hokage-sama, now if you excuse us we wouldn't want to take more of your time," Chizuro said, having carefully gone over what she was saying. Even she knew that she was unpredictable while having a hangover.

"Yes, good luck with the mission," the Hokage said as he waved them off. Somehow he felt that maybe he shouldn't sent that particular team on that mission. _'An Inuzuka and a hungover Chizuro, then add in a little Naruto to the mix… I hope we don't have to pay the Daimyo's wife for the death of her animal,'_

* * *

The cat had proven to be a much larger adversary than they had first thought, but still they managed to catch it, it took them four hours to do so. The feline had proven to be a master of escaping the clutches of the genin.

"Hokage-sama, if you excuse me, but this mission is way underpaid, this is a C-rank, not a damn D-rank. Just look at what the damned feline did to my team," Chizuro said between gritted teeth. Naruto and Hana were covered in scratch marks while Chizuro looked like she was in dire need of sleep. "Even thugs would manage to leave less marks on them for the love of Kami-sama. Give us some damn C-rank pay for this!" Pleasantries be damned, she had a hangover and this "mission" had taken a big toll on her already burdened nerves. How she was going to manage the rest of the day, she didn't know.

"Sorry, it is still a D-rank by definition," the Hokage said detachedly. Sure, he felt for the team, but it was still a D-rank, it had just been a bad match to send that particular team setup. Unknown to the team the Sandaime wrote in his notepad. 'Don't send Uzumaki Naruto, Yukino Chizuro or a member of the Inuzuka clan on any cat retrieval missions.' The Hokage was quite pleased to see that he was beginning to see what missions to send this team and not to send it to, ignoring the fact he so far only established one type of mission he couldn't send it on, feline retrievals.

"You can get your pay from Tamaki-kun," the old man said, gesturing to a chūnin near the door with a scar running horizontally over his nose.

When they walked up to the young man sitting behind the desk handing out D-rank payments Chizuro noticed the sneer that was directed towards one of her students. When the chūnin noticed her glare he ceased it and directed a cheerful smile in her direction, only further angering the already agitated woman. _'Double-crossing bastards, smiling that fake smile just to make it appear like they don't host a dislike in front of people who don't care whether he is the demon they proclaim he is.' _She didn't show her distaste for the chūnin, instead she gave a similar front to the young man, smiling friendly manner as she took their paychecks and handed them out to the team.

"Well with mission done, training time." Chizuro declared once they were outside the office with much more cheerfulness than she felt in her.

"But sensei, what about lunch?" Naruto questioned, only to be seconded by the churning sounds coming from his two comrades stomachs.

* * *

"Okay, now that you have eaten lunch it's time to train. Because we were delayed due to someone's hunger, twice of yesterdays regimen." Chizuro said, feeling that this could be her outlet, they didn't take any damage from extra training, and they would only benefit from it. The team started to say their protests, but silenced at one glare from the blonde.

"Uzumaki-san, how were you able to smell where the cat was located earlier? Your sense of smell seems to be on par with mine," the Inuzuka heir questioned. Since the conclusion of the mission it was something that had bugged her to no end. The blond boy had even managed to smell the cat once when she couldn't. It wasn't until they had caught the cat once though that they were able to utilize the Inuzuka heiress', and as they discovered naruto's, heightened sense of smell.

"Can't everyone do that?" Naruto questioned with a blank look at the brunette. To him it had just been natural, channeling some chakra to his nose to improve his sense of smell. When he first discovered that he used it frequently, until he became aware of the shortcoming it gave him as well. Coming close to foul odors weren't only unpleasant with heightened sense of smell, it could be a downright knockout as well.

"Not to the extent you were able to do it Uzumaki-san, within Konoha the Inuzuka clan are the only ones to have such a enhanced smelling that they can smell something three miles away," Hana explained for the boy, "Yet you managed to do it."

"I never much thought about it really. And please don't call me Uzumaki-san, I would prefer if you used Naruto instead, we're teammates are we not?" Naruto said smiling at the older girl.

"Well call me Hana then, Naruto-san," the girl said smiling at the boy. She had to fight a blush that was threatening to show itself; somehow the boy's smile was just too cute. _'Why did mother tell me to avoid him? He doesn't seem bad at all; mother said he was nothing but a troublemaker,' _

"Hey! Get a move on you two, red-eyes is bounds and leaps in front of you. You can flirt after the training," Chizuro said jolting the two genin out of their conversation.

"I wasn't flirting! Who would want a girl anyways, they aren't good for anything." Naruto protested. Those words were something that would stay with him for a long time, and he would remember to never utter them again. There were just a few words that were taboo on a four man team where three of the members were female, as opposed to the norm which was the opposite.

As the training had reached its end the team was trying to crawl their way away from the training field, intent on escaping their cruel Jōnin-sensei. The two girls managed to escape, but the beaten blond wasn't as lucky.

"Naruto-kun!" Chizuro said sweetly, sending chills up the ten-year olds spine. He just felt something terrible was about to happen.

"Hai sensei?" Naruto responded as he turned around and faced his teacher. _'Damn I was so close, five more meters and I would have been outside of this clearing!'_

"You and I have a special mission today, we're going to go and find you some new clothes! You can't walk around in that white shirt and those pants. That shirt of yours sticks out like a sore thumb in any environment and even more so if we are on a mission during a clear night where stealth is our priority. Moreover you need more durable clothes, those would be rags by the end of your first C-rank. You know what, I have a pretty good idea what we should get you," Chizuro said with a smile and started to drag the boy towards the shopping district of Konoha under loud protests.

* * *

The start of the shopping mission was to say the least, unpleasant. Chizuro had the day before been making a quick scouting throughout the area, finding which stores that were of interest and those that weren't, in other words, she had spent five hours walking through every single store. Now in the first store she was planning to look through their assortment a large bulky man stood blocking the entrance and wasn't moving.

"Hey move it, some people may want to go in here," the young woman said angrily, her patience had long since evaporated and she didn't feel like dealing with any delays on something that should be relaxing.

"We don't supply people like him," the man said, glaring at Naruto with distaste.

"Watch what you are saying to my student," Chizuro said coldly, narrowing her eyes at the man. "By orders of the Sandaime you will allow him to buy what he wants here, I want to speak with the store owner."

"You are speaking with the owner, and as I said, we don't provide filth like him with our services, you could have the Yondaime on your side and I still wouldn't give a damn, we don't serve dem…" the man found himself hanging in the air pressed hardly against the wall. The young woman who was twenty centimeters shorter than him was holding him high above the ground with an iron grip on his throat.

"I'll be all to happy to comply with the Sandaime's law, so say it and I'll make it quick," the woman said dangerously as she had taken out a kunai and was holding it close to the man's jugular. All activity in the vicinity had now stopped to observe the events taking place at the biggest shinobi articles store.

"Chizuro-sensei, there's no need to do this, let's just go," Naruto said hesitantly. He liked attention, just not the kind of attention his teacher and he was receiving right now. He felt glad that his teacher was standing up for him, but what if they started hating her as well, he didn't want that.

"You're lucky that you didn't say it, but next time I overhear you I will let you finish the word and the I will kill you," Chizuro said as she put back her kunai in its pouch and dropped the man to the ground before walking away, taking Naruto with her. Already the rumors were fast spreading around the market district and almost anywhere the two walked they were met with the same cold shoulders. It seemed finding better gear would be harder than she had expected it would be. She had expected some cold meetings, but not that every store would deny them the right to shop there.

"So, you're looking to buy some shinobi gear?" a man said as they walked up to the store he stood in the door opening of.

"Yeah, got a problem with that?" Chizuro said angrily.

"No need to be so tense little girl, come on inside," the man said happily. Chizuro nearly jumped out of joy, one and half hours walking aimlessly and finally a store that allowed them inside. The joy quickly evaporated though as they entered the store and she caught sight of the price tags. _'Fifty Ryō for an under shirt!? Two-hundred Ryō for a pair of pants? This stuff isn't even decent! And that ugly orange __jumpsuit, three-hundr__ed Ryō for that piece of crap, I wouldn't even pay one Ryō for it!__ Just look at the collar and color choice, ew.'_

"I've got something that might fit you perfect boy, just look at the colors and the material is very durable, and look at everything you get for the money, if you buy this you don't have to but several pieces but only one and then you can buy more of them!" to Chizuro's dismay the clerk was leading Naruto towards the same piece of clothing that she was vehemently opposed. The worst part, Naruto seemed to believe the man.

"Chizuro-sensei, this one is good right?" Naruto questioned his teacher. To him it seemed like a good choice, the color was really cool and it would surely garner him attention. It was just as the man said; if he bought the jumpsuit he wouldn't have to buy several pieces of clothing.

Chizuro was weighting pros and cons within her head, either she bought clothes in here, at outrageous prices, or she may try walking around the market district for the rest of the evening trying to find someone else willing to sell her the gear she needed for her student. One more look at the jumpsuit was enough for her to decide, "Hell no, we ain't buying stuff here, the prices are ten times what they should be and that jumpsuit, it isn't even fit to call it a piece of clothing!" with that said the young woman was making her way out of the store, dragging Naruto with her.

"Those prices were high sensei?" Naruto questioned once his teacher had released his shirt collar so that he could breathe normally again. "Tajirō-san has been very nice and always treated me nicely when I've bought stuff from him, so why were you so mean towards him?"

"What do you mean? That was damn expensive, a shirt shouldn't cost fifty Ryō, those Kunai cost one Ryō and they were bad kunai, not even fit for academy teaching," Chizuro said with an almost unholy fire in her eyes. She saw the depressed look in Naruto's face, somehow she had a sinking feeling about that as the last words the boy said to her made their way to the depths of her mind. He had bought stuff there earlier, several times by the sounds of it. _'Damn it, I'm really starting to hate this village now,'_

"Come on Naruto-kun, let's find another store," Chizuro said smiling at the boy, hiding her anger.

* * *

Horie Natsuko had just yesterday opened the doors to her store, having fled from her home country due to the movement of power. Recently a man called Gatō had started to take over more and more of her lands businesses, and it unsettled her. For that reason she had chosen to leave and start anew in Hi no kuni, namely in Konohagakure no Satō. So when the first person to approach her store she couldn't feel happier.

"My name is Horie Natsuko, welcome to my store. What may I do for you?" the woman asked smiling at the young woman and the boy accompanying her.

"I'd like to buy some clothes…" the strawberry blonde woman said hesitantly, she couldn't be too careful about people pretending. Looking around the store she could see no price tags on the clothing laid forth, an odd occurrence to her.

"How about this; made of high quality fabric and the cloth gives the effect that it looks like it actually becomes darker as chakra is infused into it." Natsuko said as she held up a skirt that usually would sent Chizuro squealing in delight, though in her foul mood she could only note that it was as the woman had said, the once pink skirt was now a very dark color of red.

"It's not for me, it's for my student," Chizuro said tiredly as she indicated to the blond boy.

"Hm, yes, he definitely needs some new clothes, those wouldn't last long for a shinobi on duty. So what were you think for him, a jumpsuit or is he going to wear shinobi pants, shirt and all that? Any specific color you were thinking about?"

"Well I think that that jumpsuit is out of the question, he has to be presentable if he's going to be on my team, and jumpsuits aren't it. I want him to look rather regal yet bad-ass at the same time. The color should be a rather dark one, that thing you showed me on that skirt was pretty neat, though do you have it in another color other than pink shifting to red?"

"So, no jumpsuit, regal yet bad-ass, dark-colors. Got it, I'll see what I can find," Natsuko disappeared into the depths of the store and returned nearly a minute later holding up a neatly folded picture, there was the body of a young man clad in dark blue shinobi pants and a similarly blue jacket which was covered by a Konoha Jōnin vest. Above this the man wore something that looked like a combination of a robe and a cloak, the color was a pure white on the side turned outwards, something that Chizuro didn't think would fit in on a mission, and near the end the cloak had red flames licking upwards. The inside of the cloak though may fit in on missions being a red, almost brown color. Something about that picture was vaguely familiar to Chizuro, but she just couldn't place it.

"This any good?" Natsuko asked the woman who was staring intently at the picture.

"Yeah, but the cloak is kinda the wrong color isn't it, it's highly visible in forests and during clear nights. Could you make that stuff for my student but without the white cloak and those flames, no need to have it too flashy," Chizuro suddenly realized where she recognized the appearance, "It almost looks like the Yondaime Hokage's clothes,"

"Well I can do that, but the white fits really well so I can use that special cloth so that the cloak can be turned from white to that brown color used on the inside, is that good? And the reason why it looks like the Yondaime Hokage, it is because it is the Yondaime," Natsuko said smiling wolfishly as she uncovered the folded part of the picture revealing the smiling face of the Yondaime Hokage. As Chizuro pictured Naruto clad in those clothes she came to the conclusion that they would look quite similar had it not been for those whisker like marks on Naruto's cheeks. _'That cursed Yondaime, feared on the battlefield, but he did have really good looks, I wonder why he didn't manage to find a woman to settle down with even if he did have many enemies.'_

"How much would it be for one of those outfits?" Chizuro questioned, she didn't want to have to pay an outrageous amount of money for this, even if it did seem like very nice outfits and the fabric seemed to be very high quality.

"Hm, from what I can judge using my eyes one of these complete outfits the material cost should be around twenty-five and add ten Ryō for the craftsmanship. But I can't be completely sure how much it will be, first I have to measure the boy."

"Well, we'll take eight sets then, make four of them dark blue and four dark green, the material should preferably be able to shift to black. Only two cloaks though, more shouldn't really be needed."

"Right, let's just get this boy measured up then miss," Natsuko said, ushering the boy into the depths of her workshop to take his measurements. After they were done Chizuro paid the woman the money for the clothes in advance and received a receipt. "So, first one will be ready by tomorrow morning, after that I think I'm going to be capable of producing three per day, maybe four."

"Sensei, how am I going to pay for all this?" Naruto questioned as they left the store where the owner stood grinning from ear to ear before she made her way inside to set to getting a set done for the boy to pick up the day after.

"You aren't, this is all on the Hokage," Chizuro said smiling at Naruto as they made their way out of the market district.

"Now, don't forget, same place, same time tomorrow. And I promise I will be on time this time, today I'm not going to meet up with that copy ninja!" with that said the blonde woman left Naruto. He hadn't noticed it but he was now standing outside his apartment. As he laid down on his bed he barely managed to sigh blissfully before he was sleeping, not even a Kyūbi would've manage to wake the boy up if it had come rampaging through Konoha.

* * *

AN: Some quick explanations of things that I have in my story.

Ryō: The money used in my story, they are the "big" ones. 1 Ryō equals 4000 mon, which will be explained below.

Mon: The "lesser" money, 4000 of these is one Ryō as I said. To give an example, one bowl of miso ramen at Ichiraku costs 490 mon, so mon is the more daily amount of money used. A decent Kunai would cost a normal shinobi about 1000 mon, shuriken being slightly cheaper due to the lesser mass of metal with an average 800 mon price tag. Ryō is more often used for business. (Whoa, just think of how much Tenten must've spent on weapons according to my monetary system if she bought them all.) This system is based on the old Japanese system which I thought was befitting for the story.

Mission cost rates: (Thought I might as well include these here as well, just for the fun of it, I have yet to find it in a story so it is a fun way to guess how much it costs to hire shinobi.) As a policy the village takes fifty percent of the mission income, the remaining amount is split equally amongst the team members. Numbers are displayed at original costs, you do the maths. Also in addition to these fixed rates additional costs may be demanded by the village performing the missions.

D-rank: 16 Ryō for one hours work, thereafter 2 Ryō per hour. Low-risk Genin missions and provide the pocket money for them, since most still live with their parents or in the case of their parents' death receive funds from the village and their family's wealth the pay is generally acceptable. Missions are almost always set within the walls of the village, on rare occasions they

C-rank: 400 Ryō and a daily cost of additional 200 Ryō. High-genin and Chūnin missions with potential of danger in the form of bandits. No other shinobi should be expected, though meeting enemy genin is within the mission parameters. These missions are generally performed outside of the village walls.

B-rank: 6000 Ryō and a daily additional cost of 1000 Ryō. High-Chūnin and Jōnin missions with a higher risk of danger in the form of enemy Shinobi, usually of Chūnin rank or even Jōnin rank. Essentially any jobs performed by Chūnin within the village, such as teaching or guard duty, are given this rank and receive the daily pay of a member of a four man team for every day they are performing their tasks. (125 Ryō)

A-rank: 20000 Ryō and a daily additional cost of 5000 Ryō. Jōnin and ANBU missions where the risk of death is very real. Enemy resistance is believed to be of Jōnin level shinobi. A Jōnin sensei receives a tenth of the daily pay (250 Ryō) for leading their teams.

S-rank: 80000 Ryō and a daily additional cost of 16000 Ryō. Jōnin, but mostly ANBU combat missions or assassinations where the death rate is believed to be above fifty percent. Assassinations of people of high political status are automatically of this level even if enemy resistance is believed to be low, mostly due to the impact it may have. A kage receives one tenth of the amount per day for performing his tasks.

SS-rank 200000 Ryō and daily cost of 30000 Ryō. Mission that only can be performed by Kage level shinobi and even then the expectance of death is as close as absolute as it can get. Any Kage assassination has received this rank.

So, the bet that Kakashi made was no small amount, that's five S-rank mission's basic pay for a four-man team, given that all teammembers survive or that the dead team-member[s have living relatives that will receive the pay they should have received.


	3. Found out

AN: First part will be a part of something that will provide back-story as the story progresses, it may be confusing at first but I guarantee that it will all ultimately be explained. It's actually meant to be confusing.

* * *

Once again he found himself in that unfamiliar setting, everything around him was nice and not a spot of dust in the place, though still clothes were strewn all across the room just like his own was. He was sure this wasn't his apartment; his own apartment was the exact opposite of this one, except the clothes. Yet again he found that he moved without willing his body to do so, and he found feelings he couldn't explain well within him. He could feel joy, the yearning for adventure and something, was it perhaps anxiety? He wasn't quite sure, the Sandaime had explained the feeling but he had never once felt it before, until now. As he stood up his mind noted how he stood approximately a good two feet taller than usually, _'Weird,'_ was all he could think as he started to stretch within the dark apartment. Soon he was making his way to the bathroom and once again he was surprised, nice white tiles covered the entire room, not a single one was cracked, and on eye level the tiles had a beautiful intricate pattern stretching around the room in a line.

As he took a look in the mirror his mind started to reel back, though his body didn't show that, instead a silly grin was plastered on his face. The whisker lookalike marks were gone and the face looked like it was overall thinner than it usually was. Simply put; he looked older, somewhere around twenty years. His inspection was cut short as his hand reached down and turned on the water tap and used his hands to splash his face with water, effectively waking him up. Taking a towel and drying his face before he walked back into the dark bedroom. He was shuffling through his clothes in a quest for a clean piece of clothing. It took him a while but he finally found it, 'That looks just like the ones Sensei had made for me.' A moment later he had replaced his blue light pajamas with the sturdy material of the clothes. Being done with that he went to the kitchen and removed a pot, pouring some water into it and placed it on the stove after he started it. Once again that strange feeling overcame him, making him feel jittery as he stood there holding the instant ramen in his hands. "Why am I even eating this shit?" he heard himself ask out, without willing the words to come.

"Right, Teuchi got his hands full with his daughter, so the shop is closed." he said as realization dawned upon him while he put the ramen in the boiling water.

_'Why can't I do anything, my dream so I should be able to do whatever I want, and isn't Old man Ichiraku's daughter several years older than me, or has she gotten sick or something...?' _

Without knowing it he had apparently eaten up the ramen, and he didn't even get feel the taste, instead he had a feeling of discontentment surging in him. Now he was making his way out of the apartment, but not before retrieving a pouch of kunai laying in the mess that was the bedroom.

He noticed how was making his way towards the center of Konoha, namely the Hokage tower. He noticed a difference though; as he walked down the streets the people were smiling and waving at him, a sense of pride welling up within him for each person he saw. Even the secretary sitting in the office was nice, from his experience they were always grumpy and avoided talking to him; instead the woman sitting there was trying to flirt with him. The Chūnin guards outside gave him a respectful bow which he replied in kind before they opened the office door. Upon entering the room he noticed that the Hokage was facing away from him, the only sign of the man even being present was the still visible top of his hat and the think plume of smoke rising from the same place. Behind the Hokage's chair stood a pale black-haired man with yellow snake-like eyes conversing happily before coming to a stop when he noticed that someone had entered the room.

The chair spun around revealing the Sandaime Hokage, "Ah, Minato-kun, I see that you decided to accept," the Sandaime said, smiling happily at him. Naruto was surprised; the Hokage looked over ten years younger.

"Yes Hokage-sama, my belief is that if this mission succeeds we can bring a swift end to this war. I have understood someone else would accompany me?" he heard himself say, as he looked to the pale man he felt a chill of uneasiness wash over him.

"Yes, Orochimaru-kun will accompany you; you will be going to the Kusa-Iwa border where our contact will meet with you. I expect you to move out now, this mission is of utmost importance so tell no-one," the Sandaime said grimly.

As he along with the pale man moved out of the office he felt the dread he had been feeling come back ten-fold, somehow he couldn't get himself to feel like what he said in the office was true. That was when he awoke, choking for air. He felt the air enter and exit his throat, yet his brain said he didn't get any oxygen. It wasn't until he fell hard on the floor that his breathing was returning to normal. As he took a look around in the room he noticed that he now was in the dump that was his apartment, even disoriented with a fuzzy vision he could see the large mold spots on his walls.

* * *

Chizuro along with the members of her genin team, sans Naruto, was standing outside the mission room, waiting for the secretary to call upon them. Currently Naruto an hour late and they had felt that they might as well start the mission without him, he could be punished later anyway.

"Chizuro-san, you and your team may enter," said the secretary in her bored tone of voice. Chizuro had a feeling that the woman was beginning to grow weary of her job.

"Wait sensei!" Naruto's voice reached the team just as they were about to close the door, a moment later a out of breath Naruto came crashing into them, sending his two fellow genin to the floor along with himself while Chizuro smoothly side-stepped the blond boy.

The Sandaime watched with bewilderment at the pile that was team Chizuro, now covered by a white piece of cloth. It took them a few seconds one of the genin started to sit up, throwing away the offending piece of cloth revealing a dazed Yūhi Kurenai.

Underneath the white cloak Hana and Naruto laid frozen, they could feel each other's breath wash over their faces; their lips were barely an inch away. When Naruto was unexpectedly lifted into the air they both felt relief as the closeness truly dawned on them, Hana couldn't help but reflect on how cute Naruto's face looked when he looked so lost.

"Why were you so late Naruto!" asked a furious Chizuro as she started to shake the boy roughly while she held onto the boy's cloak.

When Chizuro finally stopped to shake the boy he felt nauseous but nevertheless chose to answer, lest he would have to endure it again, "I was going to pick up the clothes but then a black cat crossed my way so I had to take a roundabout; once I had gotten my clothes though a old lady wanted some help to bring some heavy groceries home so I decided to help her, but she lived on the other side of the village,"

"You're a bad liar Naruto," Chizuro deadpanned as she eyed him critically. He may have gotten his clothes from the store that morning, but that shouldn't have made him come one hour late. "You'll be given weights for turning up late, ten pounds on each limb and twenty on your chest, under no circumstances without me telling me are you going to be allowed to take them off!" Chizuro now sported the scariest smile the team had yet to see.

Even the Sandaime felt a little wary of the young woman, he had a feeling that just maybe forming that team hadn't been so wise, at least under that leadership. Deciding that they had wasted enough time, and he had gotten a short break from sorting the mission reviews, he cleared his throat to pick up their attention. Naruto was dropped to the floor with an "Oomph" before they all stood before him orderly, Naruto still a little dazed while Hana still had a slight blush on her face, every time she looked to Naruto it increased slightly before receding as she looked away.

"Team Chizuro, I have what I think is a good D-rank for you guys, demolition of an old building close to the northern side of the village, here's the mission briefing, Do you accept?" the Hokage said as he handed Chizuro the file. As he looked at the team, more specifically at Naruto, he felt a cold sweat breaking out, had Chizuro already figured out the secret that he had been keeping for the last ten years? A secret even Kakashi or Jiraiya wasn't aware of. He thought that he had been so careful, being the only one aware of the facts, yet this woman had seemingly figured it out in a just few days time. Apparently the whisker like mark blinded the Konoha citizens, but she was an exception perhaps.

"We accept Hokage-sama, if you excuse us," Chizuro said as she turned her heels and walked out of the office, the genin close on her heels.

"I'll have to talk to her after this," the Hokage muttered almost inaudible, but much to his chagrin the Chūnin on his left heard him. "Ah, nothing, I'm just talking to myself," was the old man's reply when the young Chūnin asked him what he had meant. He was saved when a new team entered the office, ready to receive their mission for the day.

The team had arrived at the designated spot in the mission briefing, finding an old house, the boards were decaying and had taken on a grayish tone. It looked like it had been abandoned two decades ago and had been left there to rot. Chizuro could feel a sense of pride as she saw the two girls on her team eye Naruto warily before turning away from the boy, a slight blush on their cheeks every time. _'Damn I'm good at picking clothes!'_

The boy had been trudging heavily ever since Chizuro had forcefully clasped on the weights, at first he hadn't really been able to tell that much of a difference, but after ten minutes the weight started to make its presence known. To his dismay he couldn't possibly remove them either, and as Chizuro saw his futile attempt to remove the weights she had started to laugh and mock him.

"What are you waiting for, better times? Chizuro asked her team when they had been standing there for five minutes without doing anything. "Get to demolishing that house; I want to see it leveled to the ground in five minutes. I don't care how, just do it."

Maybe, just maybe, she regretted those words when she saw Naruto and Hana rushing towards the house at high speed with similar wicked grins on their faces, akin to that of a child who just found it fun to pull out the legs of an insect, enjoying the sight of it writhing powerlessly as it was slowly dying. Before Kurenai, who was walking at a normal pace, reached the building Hana had managed to tear through one of the walls, using her family's distinctive Tsūga technique. The size of the two holes was roughly that of a grown adult, apparently the wood was even weaker than Chizuro had expected. She watched as Naruto showed unknown skills as he smoothly jumped through one of the holes made by his teammate and moments later reappearing through the same hole.

"Hana-san, get back," Naruto said as he rushed towards the girl who was readying another Tsūga. At first the girl wanted to scream at him to get out of the way, he was spoiling her fun after all, but as he moved his hands into a distinctive seal she understood that there would probably be nothing left for her to do.

Even before Kurenai had reached the building all that was left was smoldering ashes, the occasional burning plank and the stone foundation. Hadn't Chizuro been familiar with explosive notes she would have been baffled at the destructive force, she hadn't been able to distinguish more than four explosion yet the building was on ground level. The same couldn't be said for the two girls who just stared at the destruction caused by one boy with a few explosive notes.

"Um, are we done here sensei?" Naruto asked as he ran up to Chizuro, Kurenai and Hana numbly following.

"Um… yeah, let's go to the Hokage's office," Chizuro said absentmindedly as she turned around, droningly motioning for her students to follow. _'Where had he managed to acquire those, that kind of notes are almost only available to ANBU or someone quite experienced with the production of explosive notes. Ah man, it must be that baka__ Inu's team!'_

* * *

The Hokage looked at the team that just entered the room, he had sent them out half an hour ago, and should by no means be back already. The demolition of that house had been expected be at least 3 hours of work.

"Did you lose the directions again Chizuro-chan?" the elderly man questioned knowing that the suffix would irk her, he could still remember the young woman losing the direction on numerous occasions, at least when low ranked missions were concerned.

"No, this kid blew up the house in a moment," Chizuro said as she pointed to Naruto and still managed to get off a vehement glare at the Hokage, "using high-yield explosive notes,"

Naruto gave Chizuro a miffed look; she made it sound bad somehow. Hearing the tone of surprise in Chizuro's voice and seeing the look on Naruto Sarutobi let out a light chuckle, he himself had actually forgotten that Naruto had access to those notes.

"Why don't you take your students for some training then, since you finished today's mission already. Once you're done for the day I would like to have a meeting with you Chizuro-san."

"Yes, Hokage-sama, we'll be off now then," Chizuro said as she turned around.

"Wait, the money…" before the words had left the lips the three genin along with sensei were gone, as was the mission money as he was kindly informed by the now troubled Chūnin who was handling the mission pay.

* * *

The team was standing in their usual training ground, just having finished their warm-ups as Chizuro called them. According to the three genin it was a whole training regimen though.

"All right brats, I've thought about this and I think I can teach you something useful, especially in combat within forests, tree climbing! Any of you heard of it?" Chizuro said smiling at the three genin.

"But sensei, what will climbing tree be any good for? It's not like we can fight while our hands are occupied with holding onto branches," Hana asked dubious of the efficiency of tree climbing in a combat situation. Sure it could be nice to start out from within the protection of the canopy, but after that it wasn't very useful.

Before Chizuro had a chance to refute Hana's conclusion someone else answered, and considering the grades that student had in the academy it was nearly stunningly shocking. It was probably only thanks to the knowledge of the ANBU team that actually had befriended him that kept her from looking too surprised as he started talking. She had truly been expecting that the old time genin were aware of that exercise, but apparently they weren't, instead it was the fresh out of the academy who knew of it.

"Tree climbing is one of the most basic and fundamental aspects of fighting as a shinobi, not only can the principle of tree climbing be applied to just tree climbing, at also allows the shinobi to climb walls or practically any surface, a further developed version of the basics even allows shinobi to walk on water. Tree climbing is not as the name suggests climbing trees per say as in using your hands to do so, rather you output a exact amount of chakra to stick to the surface, leaving your hands free to be used for jutsu or using weapons. Within Hi no Kuni tree climbing is _the_ most important aspect when fighting outside our own village due to the majority of our land is filled forests." To the entire teams surprise a soft clapping could be heard that was slowly approaching them as Naruto finished. Coming out from the edge of the forest was a rather tall man with his face hidden behind a dog mask worn and he was wearing Konoha ANBU armor along with a white captain's cloak.

"I see you still remember the lessons taught to you," the man said, his voice slightly amused, "Never expected that actually,"

"Didn't you retire Inu-san just a few days ago?" Chizuro said sweetly. 'I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind about giving brats high-yield explosive notes when I can't get any!'

"Ma ma, that's correct, a situation have appeared where the Hokage apparently needed me for one last mission. I just wanted to see what my student was up to before I'm off," the eyes of the two female genins were now glued to Naruto, their faces spelling confusion high and wide.

"He's doing fine, now to a more concerning matter, why do you give the brat high-yield explosive notes!? He's a damn ten year old, it could be damn dangerous. He could have blown up his teammates earlier when he demolished a house!" Chizuro said intensely, but at the word explosive and demolished she noticed that the man had pretty much lost interest in her, instead he now stood close to Naruto.

"Naruto, what did I tell you about using those?" the man said sternly to the young blonde who started to look at the ground. _'Ha, at least he have some sense of responsibility,'_ though as she started to do a victory dance within her mind.

"Never use them when it can be dangerous?" Naruto said hesitantly. Somehow he could feel the man's gaze harden even if the mask pretty much hid his eyes from view.

"No, the other big no-no,"

"Never blow things up within Konoha without you being present?" Naruto said as if he had come to realize the solution to all problems in the world.

"That's right, no bangs without me there! I also want to see the explosions, now since I wasn't there, just how big was it? I want to know!" all hope Chizuro had evaporated, listening to the man was like listening to Kakashi when he gets his hands on an Icha Icha, fresh from the print. The two were now deeply involved in a conversation about different methods, placement of the notes for most efficiency, how many notes would have been needed to reduce the building to dust that would evenly spread out over the area. The three females could only sigh; _'Boys!'_ was the one though circulating through their minds.

* * *

Chizuro sat within the Hokage's office, the old man staring at her as he silently puffed on his pipe. After seven hours of training she had felt that she could release her team from training. Training with only one conscious student had been deemed inefficient by her, Hana and Kurenai were only half conscious of their surroundings due to wearing themselves out.

"So what is it you wanted Hokage-sama," the last ten minutes silence had been uncomforting and she almost wanted to scream for the old man to start talking already.

"Ah yes, Chizuro-san, how have your team been so far?" the old man asked as he remove his pipe.

"They've been pretty good so far, the girls don't have much of an endurance compared to Naruto though. And surprisingly they weren't aware of the tree climbing exercise yet Naruto was,"

"That's good, at least you've taught it to them then I suppose?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Chizuro said, "Kurenai got it down very fast, the Inuzuka girl still have some slight problems with it though. Naruto knew it from the beginning but he opted to train on it further," The Hokage knew all of this, he had been scrying on the team during the afternoon and had a rather vast knowledge of Naruto's aptitude.

Looking at the Hokage nodding Chizuro felt slightly irked, "Hokage-sama, could we please come to the real reason why you called me here?"

The Hokage took a deep sigh, he knew that Chizuro despised pleasantries and rather would hit the hammer to the head so no use in trying to delay it, "It has come to my understanding that you were the one to get those clothes for Naruto-kun, is that correct?"

"Yes Hokage-sama, don't they look good on him?" Chizuro said smiling wolfishly, "Kurenai and Hana had trouble to not stare at him, just image what can happen in a few years," the smile was nearly wickedly evil now and had the old man shuddering and while he was blushing at the implications. It would be perfect in one of Jiraiya's books.

Quickly shaking his head from such thoughts the old man turned serious again, "The matter isn't wether he looks good or not, it's the resemblance he have when wearing those clothes, he resembles his…" it was then when he noticed the star struck expression on Chizuro the old man realized that it was only now with his words that she just now realized just who Naruto was related to. _'Shit!' _Had he only silently gotten new clothing for Naruto himself and taken those clothes away no-one would be the wiser. Instead he had gone about it the way he had and managed to do exactly what he was avoiding to do.

"Chizuro-chan, I plead to you, don't tell anyone. Just now you're the second person to ever know of this," the old man was desperate, if the news came out it could mean trouble. Not only would they have to worry about the threat of Iwa, either Konoha's populace would despise the boy even more or the council would truly take matters in their own hands and make the boy a mindless living weapon who had the power of the Kyuubi and the one of the most devastating jutsus in history in his arsenal, or worse yet, they would kill the boy, take his blood to unseal the sealed scroll that currently was locked deep within a vault and then spread the most devastating jutsu to Konoha's ninjas.

The strawberry-blonde woman was just blankly staring into the oblivion, how could she not have noticed, the resemblance was uncanny, and now that the Hokage said it. She had to change his clothes, maybe within Konoha no-one would suspect anything due to their resent towards the boy, but outside of the village filled with scorn almost anyone would be able to mistake him for a younger Yondaime Hokage. The Yondaime Hokage was a man that she hated yet respected in the highest degree. The man was an embodiment of a warrior and a just leader, ruthless on the battlefield and caring about his people. Visions of a time long past started to appear before her, she could see her father, his closest advisor and everyone else. They were laughing as they travelled down one of the many roads within the rocky passes.

"Chizuro-chan, wake up, don't do this!" when the Hokage's office returned to her field of vision she was on the soft carpet within the Hokage's office and had stinging sensations on her cheeks. Sitting on her stomach was a nearly frantic Sandaime with a worried expression on his face, his right hand still raised high. "Thank Kami-sama," the Hokage sighed as he stood up and poured up some water into a glass which he gave to Chizuro who hesitantly drank it slowly as she say up towards the wall.

"How long was I out?" she asked detachedly.

"Five minutes, I'm very sorry for hitting you," the Hokage said apologetically

"No, thank you, it's better to have a little stinging sensation than laying unconscious for who knows how long,"

"I know what you must went through, but I have to be assured, can you please protect Naruto's true identity,"

"With my life, Hokage-sama," Chizuro said with more conviction than she felt she could muster. "Now, if you excuse me…" a moment after she collapsed to the floor, the glass shattering as it hit the floor. The Hokage carefully lifted the young woman and started to brush away the glass slivers that now were interlaced with her hair. He carefully avoided stepping on the glass pieces on his floor and quietly exited the office. He would send a Chūnin to come and clean up this mess later. Now his first priority was to get Chizuro somewhere where she could rest, he decided that he could use the Hokage's room in the tower since he himself rarely used it, taking the key that probably was within the young woman's pockets were out of the question as gentleman and leader he shouldn't do those things. He opened the door quietly and in the darkness he located the bed and put down the young woman. As he left the room he silently closed the door, "Good night, Chizuro-chan," his deed done he set off to find a Chūnin before he himself was going to go home and lay down in his bed.

* * *

Kurenai just reached her home, slipping the key in and unlocking the door she entered her dark hallway before turning on the light switch. Greeting her was no-one, she was after all not from Konoha originally. The apartment sparsely furnished, only the most essential furniture was there. Dragging her tired legs towards her bedroom she silently wondered just who Naruto reminded her of, she knew she had seen the appearance before but couldn't just place it. Another thing, the scorn he received was unnatural, she knew he was a prankster, he had been only half an year after her in the academy, but for the most part they were just harmless fun. Certainly that shouldn't be enough to receive the entire village's scorn.

As she laid there sprawled out on her bed she also realized the two were pretty much alike, both were orphans and were pretty much ignored by society, she wasn't hated, but no-one seemed to care about her either, only the Sandaime seemed to care, before she had become a genin the man had visited her several times, talking to her about everything. He had actually been the man who had gotten her out of her depression when she had first arrived in Konoha, since then he'd been the man she respected most in the village.

'_This team, maybe they will be better than my old one… At least they are much nicer…' _

* * *

AN: Hm, took longer than expected, but then again didn't have a lot of time, a lot of tests this recent period. Also, End-game raiding in World of Warcraft does take up a fair amount of time but at least I'm done with that shit now:)

I hope you enjoyed this chapter even though not much happened in it, please look forward to the next one. (Which will also take some time sadly, but after I think it should go faster, no promise though)

btw! Arashi no Mae means before the storm if anyone wonders :)


	4. Fire festival

He warily eyed the contact, he felt great distrust for the man, but since Orochimaru didn't seem to suspect any foul play he decided to jump out as well.

"Ah, the man known as the bane of Iwa himself. I never guessed that the Hokage would send someone as important at you on such a trivial mission," the man said as he spotted the blond jumping down from the tree.

"The assassination of a Kage isn't something I would consider trivial," he said through clenched teeth, that smile he was given was unnerving to say the least.

"Hehe, you have a point Namikaze-san. As I was explaining to Orochimaru-san I am the Tsuchikage's second in command Hayashi Keiichi. I am the one who will help you perform the assassination along with some of my own men. The plan is to ambush him as he travels back from the south border in two days time, on his way back to Iwagakure the company will have to pass through a narrow ravine, that's where we will strike. I have managed to get almost exclusively my own men guarding Tsuchikage-sama, so it will probably be a smooth job, you two will just be there to ensure the kill."

"So, Namikaze-kun, Hayashi-san. Shall we depart?" Orochimaru questioned. Without another word the three ninjas were off, now entering Iwa territory.

He could sense that something was off; there was just something about that smile that Orochimaru wore as he had been conversing to Keiichi earlier that unnerved him. It almost seemed like the two had some further agreement that didn't involve their countries politics. Silently going through the handseals while muttering the jutsu's name a small puff of smoke later and he found a very small toad sitting on his shoulder.

"What can I do for you Minato-sama?" the small toad asked.

"Keep an eye on him," Minato whispered, pointing to the white-skinned sannin, "try to learn about everything he discusses with that man," Minato now pointed to the Iwa Jōnin. The toad nodded in confirmation before it soundlessly left its perch on Minato's shoulder to instead unnoticed cling to Orochimaru's clothing.

* * *

"So, today we got a nice C-rank for your team Chizuro-san, your mission will be to travel to the capital where your mission is to uphold some order during the festival of fire. One of the innkeepers there has grown tired of the disorder around his business every year and has requested help to keep tugs at bay. You've been hired for the entire duration, so unfortunately you will have to miss our celebrations here in Konoha. Prepare for a one month mission, if you chose to accept."

"Yes!" the entire team exclaimed, surprising the Hokage and Chizuro. Usually any mission around the festival of fire was avoided by Konoha Shinobi. "No more weed picking!" "No more avoiding Naruto-san's explosive notes!!" "One step closer to becoming Hokage!" the two elder shinobi just stared at them stupidly.

'_I have forgotten to give them a C-rank before, haven't I?' _the Sandaime questioned himself. Looking at the teams' mission history he nearly winced, the team had performed thirty missions on the surplus side on the recommended D-rank amount to be eligible for a C-rank. _'Stingy, especially for _

_the girls who already have performed several missions before this even and now had accumulated a total of one-hundred ten D-ranks.'_ The Sandaime had to wonder, Chizuro had pushed her team further than any other instructor did so early, and the mission amount was impressive to say the least. She had started out soft with the missions, but recently the team had managed to complete up to five missions per day.

The team was out on the roads about three hours after receiving the mission, there had been some delays, the biggest one being that the team had gone to Naruto's apartment to unpack all the instant ramen the blond had packed, much to Chizuro's frustration and Naruto's dismay.

* * *

Naruto found the capital to be large, very large. Konoha was just a fraction of the size, the houses were a lot taller than Konoha's and in the center of the city there was a large castle. Something that surprised Naruto was the lack of ninjas; so far he had seen none. Instead he had seen a lot of people that seemed to be samurais.

"So, where's this Hayashimizu's inn that we're supposed to guard during the festival?" Hana questioned as they slowly made their way through the city, the endless walking was grating on her nerves. For the last two days they had done nothing else except sleeping and eating.

"Hm… it was somewhere in the middle of the market district and on the big parade road," Chizuro said absentmindedly as she was more focused on looking at what the stores along the road had to offer.

"Is it that place?" Naruto questioned, drawing the team's attention. About a hundred meters in front of them they could see a large building surrounded by white walls. Everything was fashioned after a Shinto temple, yet something told them it wasn't a temple.

"Yeah, seems that's the place," Chizuro said as they reached the entrance where a large sign, announcing it was "Hayashimizu's family inn", sat. "Oh, they got onsen! Let's hurry team, I want to try it out." Before the genin could respond Chizuro was well within the walls, holding the door open for the genin, motioning them to hurry.

The lobby was rather bare, only the desk with an elderly man standing there, a wall full of key slots behind him, told them that it actually was an inn.

"Welcome to my inn, I'm Hayashimizu Kensei, what can I do to assist you?" the elderly man said as he spotted the three females and the boy.

"We're here on your request Hayashimizu-san, we are the Konoha ninja sent to guard your inn from harm during the festival," Chizuro said with a pleasant smile.

"Ah," Hayashimizu said, sounding disappointed. "Very well,"

"Were you perhaps expecting some people a little older than my students? Were you expecting the team to consist of only men because women are weaker?" Chizuro said, clearly agitated. Hayashimizu slowly crouched under the glare of the young woman, backing away from her while 

furiously shaking his head. "I can assure you that my student's are more than capable for taking care of drunks and that like that are bound to circulate this place during the festivities."

"Yes, I'll be counting on you then, ninja-san."

"Oh, I forgot. I'm Yukino Chizuro, the Jōnin-sensei of this team. The blond boy is Uzumaki Naruto, explosives expert, the brunette with the red marks on her cheeks is Inuzuka Hana who is our tracking expert and then we have the girl with the red eyes, Yūhi Kurenai, genjutsu artist… or something along those lines." Chizuro said as she introduced the team.

"Very well, a pleasure meeting you all."

"The same, old man," Naruto said before he got elbowed by Hana.

"Don't speak to the client like that Naruto!"

"Che, someone gotta talk, can't stand here like some stone statues! I smelled ramen from a restaurant here and I wanna go there!"

"No… Ramen… Period!" Hana said through gritted teeth. Naruto had been going on about the ramen he had been forced to leave in Konoha ever since they were outside the village gates. She, along with the other members of the team, had grown beyond tired of hearing about ramen.

"Only because you can live off dogfood doesn't mean everybody else can,"

"Why you! It only happened once!" before Hana could go on or Naruto could respond they both froze when they felt Kurenai's chilly glare directed on them, daring to embarrass them any further. Even though Naruto was seen as the most dangerous member, Kurenai had been voted the scariest by Naruto and Hana, even surpassing Chizuro.

* * *

"C'mon, this is boring," Naruto's complaint only reached on deaf ears as the team leisurely walked through the shopping district.

_After eating some food at the inn and putting the stuff in their rooms the genin had been told to wander the down and do some recognizance, which the girls summarized to mean they were free to do shopping. Naruto had been thwarted just as he was about to jump atop the rooftops, Hana holding his cloak with a grip of steel, not letting him move an inch._

"Naruto, you seem to be unable to comprehend this, we're scouting, trying to find where the best bargains are to be found. I'm sure Chizuro-sensei will appreciate our efforts."

"Well… maybe so, but she told us to scout the city. And I take that as trying to get a view on how the city looks and that stuff, not go and look for stuff to buy."

"Naruto-kun, if you don't complain anymore I promise to treat you to a bowl of ramen after this," Kurenai said, quickly stopping his complaints before Hana snapped at him and started to make a scene in the middle of the shopping district. She watched as Naruto contemplated the proposal for a 

second before sagely nodding, she could guess his reasoning; Free ramen is free ramen, and you never say no to free ramen.

"So Kurenai-san, what do you think about that kimono?" Hana asked while pointing to a crimson red short kimono. While she did find it attractive, its price was too high for her to even consider, the tag reading 500 ryō. She was sure that in Konoha a similar outfit wouldn't cost even half of that, furthermore it was made out of a fine and would surely not endure even a single mission. Maybe it would fit for a mission which required some nicer dress, but it would defiantly not hold for ordinary missions.

"So expensive,"

"But still, it looks very nice, don't you think?"

Naruto visibly blanched as the two girls started the process of going through everything the store had to offer even though they all knew they wouldn't buy anything. They had been doing that for quite a while now. _'Remember, you'll get ramen for this, so don't say a word, the stores close in…'_ Naruto turned to look at the clock and was close to tears, there was another four hours until the stores closed.

* * *

Much to Naruto's enjoyment and Hana's dismay the group was now sitting at ramen stand, waiting for their food. Kurenai had been the one putting a stop to the store browsing spree, much to Naruto's surprise, after a total of five hours Kurenai felt she had enough of it and needed some food. Not one to break a promise since Naruto hadn't complained once the three had sat down at the closest ramen stand.

"Here you go, enjoy," three steaming bowls of ramen were now in place in front of the genin, "That'll be three Ryō," after Kurenai and Hana had paid a simultaneous chorus of "Itadakimasu" was heard before the three started to eat the food in silence.

"What the hell are you doing bitch? You're worthless, I told you not to drop anything yet you do it!" the peace was disturbed by a man on the street. Turning around the three genin saw a man dressed in fine robes standing over a girl about the same age as Naruto with a lot of merchandise spread around her. They watched as the man kicked the girl, sending her airborne and crashing into the wall yet no-one reacted to this, instead the people carefully avoided the scene, making large circles around it but never intervening as the assault continued.

"Why aren't anyone stopping him?" Naruto asked, not really expecting a reply.

"That's the regent lord's son, Matsugawa Shibuya-sama. Touching him is like spitting the daimyo in the face," the ramen stand owner answered Naruto's surprise, as much as Naruto hated it he had to stop himself from initiating his plan on punching the noble's face in.

"So there's nothing we can do without getting arrested?" Kurenai asked through gritted teeth, nothing was more hated by her than unjust beatings. The amount of merchandise the girl had been carrying had been impossible for one person to handle as far as Kurenai could see.

"Not really anything to grieve over, she's from Iwa, a peace offering of sorts from the Tsuchikage so that the regent lord's son could have personal servant. Apparently her parents were possessed by a demon, just look at her eyes, crimson as blood and slit pupils like those of a snake. They say it's the eyes of a demon," the ramen stand owner said coldly. The three Konoha genin started to inch their way out of the stand as the other patrons started to speak as well, some even questioning why she hadn't just been beheaded when she arrived to the city. The three genin decided to quickly leave before the crowd became violent as well.

"Don't come back to the castle until you've contemplated your actions, and if you try to flee this time I'll have the guards break your legs," the noble said as he walked away from the girl as she laid crying on the ground. Naruto was watching from the rooftops as the general populace carefully walked away from the prone form, though some of them walked just straight past, but not without spitting on the girl. Sitting on the rooftops sat Naruto silently watching, it wasn't until the sun since long had disappeared beyond the horizon and darkness had settled over the city that the girl dared to move. Slowly sitting up and cautiously looking for any signs of activity on the street.

"Can't help but see the parallels to her, bozu?" the voice belonging to his sensei surprised him and nearly made him fall down from his perch. It was freaky how she could sneak up to him without noticing even if their ranks were as wide apart as it was possible. "You see a girl who's treated as trash by her surrounding… albeit, she's the slave of someone, yet you're your own. Maybe should consider yourself lucky I suppose. She's even said to be the breed of demons from what I've heard,"

Naruto just stared at his teacher as she leisurely sat down beside his crouching form. "The girls told me you ran off without a world, after they told me what happened I was pretty sure I would find you where this girl was. Really now, why are you just watching from the shadows, if you want to help her reach out a hand to her. Sitting here, observing, won't do any good,"

Giving her an undignified grunt Naruto jumped down on the ground, landing in front of the girl. To his dismay his appearance seemed to scare the girl as she flinched away and fell backwards while trying to shield herself from him using her arms.

"Please, don't hurt me, I haven't done anything, I promise," the girl was in tears again as she laid there on the ground. "I haven't tried to flee, so please don't break my legs, Matsugawa-sama said that would happen if I tried to flee, but I haven't tried to, so please…"

Chizuro could see that the girl was lapsing into a fit of panic, apparently she didn't do any good with people. Thinking about it their appearance didn't help in the least as they both had jumped down from the rooftops. It seemed like the girl's body couldn't manage the stress she was feeling in combination with her earlier beating and malnourished state as she lapsed into unconsciousness.

"Well… that could've gone smoother," Chizuro dryly remarked as she soundlessly landed beside Naruto, "Seriously, why didn't you jump down first and then walked up to her instead of jumping down in front of her, normal people aren't used to others appearing from nowhere."

Naruto stupidly stared at his sensei as she started to walk away while carrying the girl, "But sensei, in Konoha no-one reacts when I do that," Naruto started to protest.

"Exactly, there we have it. We're not in Konoha where ninjas are a part of the daily life, we're in Tengai, where ninjas aren't apart of the daily routine. Only in rare cases do they feel the need to hire us, like when they don't feel the city's own military isn't enough. Apart from us I would guess maybe twenty other ninjas are in the town now on official business apart from the daimyo's own ninjas. So jumping down from the roof is discouraged, remember that. Only use your skills learned if you really need to, otherwise resist the urge." Chizuro explained as they walked through the deserted streets of the city.

Silence reigned supreme in the large city, surprising compared to the bustle during the day. _'Twenty ninjas, that can't be right! But I haven't felt anyone's presence so far…'_

"Naruto, as a punishment for running out you're on guard duty tonight, Kurenai will relieve you later. Even though the threats shouldn't appear until the festival begins it never hurts to have trained on it. You have to find an efficient way to stay awake and be aware of your surroundings while doing the dreary task that guarding is. Oh, and this girl will borrow your room until tomorrow." Chizuro said as they reached the inn where they were staying at. Before Naruto could retort Chizuro was gone from his view and reaching into his pocket Naruto found his room keys were gone. Cursing his luck the boy jumped onto the rooftop to "guard" the inn.

* * *

Trivia section;

Mission requirements;

D-rank: Any shinobi can perform these, usually performed by genin teams to build teamwork and provide light knowledge in operation if the mission is of the retrieval type.

C-rank: Medium, or high genin teams to Chūnin rank usually. For a genin a minimum of fifteen D-rank missions should be performed before they are eligible, though about thirty D-rank is recommended. If they are of the rank of Chūnin this is automatically the minimum rank set for regular missions. Easily solo missions for Jōnin rank, which can net them, and their village, additional money.

B-rank: Medium or high Chūnin teams to Jōnin level. For a Chūnin the minimum amount of C-rank missions performed is usually twenty-five, the recommendation being set to forty. Jōnin have this as the minimum rank for regularly performed missions.

A-rank: Medium to high Jōnin level missions. Usually the ninja have at least twenty B-rank under their belts, however there are no true recommended amount of missions of any rank for this type of mission. Usually the Jōnin is evaluated for some time before they are cleared to perform this rank of missions.

S-rank: Combat experience is the only true requirement; knowledge about things within the mission parameters is also a must.

Also of note, usually deals can be made, for example the mission team Chizuro perform is somewhere in the borderline of a D-rank and a C-rank. So the charge is slightly lower than C-rank, especially since they don't pay for the lodging themselves.

Other stuff;

Daimyo: He's the lord of a country, like Hi no Kuni or Kaze no Kuni. He have absolute power of the country's army and that stuff. The highest political position in a country.

Regent Lord: The lord of a city, he governs a city, get the taxes and provides the daimyo with some troops aside from having his own defense force which under a conflict are handed over to the daimyo's command. Ranked pretty high in a country's political play, but still ranked below the person governing the country's ninja village, provided the country has such a village.

A/N: Sorry about the massive delay... and short chapter... and anything else. Got delayed beyond my imagination, my goal was originally to have this out for you to read by easter... but it just wouldn't happen, sadly. And after Easter it was back to raiding shit in WoW again more than 3 days a week with the worst patch ever (IMO). The massive lags, the broken addons, welfare epics, the bad things never ends with the 2.4 patch. -.-  
But at last I managed to scrounge this up, hope some of you enjoyed it and found it to your liking. Originally this was planned to only stretch for one chapter, but I've decided to make it to a much bigger part, so chapter five will be made from scratch, had a half done piece that was supposed to be chapter five so this means more wait for the next chapter. :(  
(I'll never again give an approx. release time for an upcoming chapter, evidently I can never meet it.)

Until next time, and remember, reviews ARE appreciated.

And oh, the poll is still running in my profile, know that that still the outcome of the vote is only a pointer to me and is in no way the absolutely deciding factor, don't be scared from voting though. :)


	5. Remembrance

"Namikaze-san, Orochimaru-san, we're approaching the valley now. This will be where we part as I have to return to the Tsuchikage's side to keep up the appearances. In two days time the Tsuchikage and his entourage will arrive in the small town you see bellow, that's where we will strike. Until then," with that said the Iwa Jōnin started his descent from the mountain travelling back towards the border of Hi no Kuni.

"So what do you think Namikaze-kun, can we trust him?" Orochimaru questioned when he felt it was safe to speak.

"I don't think he's trying to set us up for a trap, but we never know. From what I gathered he wanted a quick end to the war," Minato said as he internally sighed. This sneaky business wasn't his cup of ramen, he was supposed to be on the battlefield, spreading mayhem using his Hiraishin no jutsu instead of deep behind enemy lines and being a part of an assassination on the Tsuchikage.

"Hm… I believe you are right, for now let's find a good surveillance point and find any possible escape routes; Hayashi was kind enough to provide me with a map of the area. Let's…" the sannin fell silent as he sensed someone in the vicinity, from Minato's stiff form he could tell he had done the same. They were both men with years of combat experience and no-one could sneak up on them.

Did he betray us? Minato questioned Orochimaru using handsigns. The sannin shrugged his shoulders, he didn't know.

"Stop with whatever you are doing, this is Iwa's land and a curfew is currently in effect, don't you know that? All of you civilians should either be at home or travelling using the roads, we're in times of war. Please lie down on the ground and wait until we've checked you," a voice commanded them.

Minato silently slid out one of his kunai he had hidden in his sleeve, the man was behind him in a tree. At first he started to move to the ground but in a single instant he had turned around and thrown the kunai into the tree, activating the special seals on the kunai he appeared in the tree, holding a kunai poised to strike. He could see the Iwa shinobi's surprise before utter terror was the one emotion that was displayed in his face. Before a single sound was emitted from his throat Minato covered the man's mouth as he started to thrash violently to escape from Minato's grip while Minato put the kunai to the throat before cleanly cutting through the man's jugular vein, silencing him forever.

* * *

"Naruto!" her strangled cry didn't seem to have any effect on her teammate as his grip only hardened while his kunai was cutting deeper into her throat. Slowly her vision was starting to fade as her body started to scream for more air while she faintly could feel the flow of blood from her throat as the sticky liquid started to be absorbed by her shirt.

There was jolt and suddenly she could breathe freely while she flew through the air. Landing roughly as her arms buckled under her weight due to her lack of strength she slowly turned around to see Naruto lifted into the air, Chizuro holding a firm grip on his throat as he wildly swiped with his kunai in the air.

Numbly Kurenai moved her hand to the wound on her neck and felt hot liquid running through her fingers. Faintly she could hear her sensei calling her name but it didn't really concern her as she felt tired. Lying down on the roof tiles she started to close her eyes as she watched the sun rising above the rooftops of the city. _'So beautiful'_

* * *

When her vision returned she found herself alone in a room lying in a bed with blankets up to her head. As she attempted to move her head she found a constraint around her neck, restricting its movement. Reaching to her neck she could feel several straps of a rough fabric winded tightly around her neck but without choking her. She had been bandaged but she couldn't remember by who or why she had needed it. As she tried to sit up she started to feel dizzy and her strength was quickly waning as she fell back down on the bed.

"You're up," said a voice to her left. Looking there she could see her sensei with a relieved look on her face. "I was worried for quite a while that you would die. The council would have had my head for letting one of my students kill another one,"

"This is after…" Kurenai questioned as she tugged at the bandage, she had been going to relieve Naruto but found him sleeping on the roof thrashing around. As she had moved to wake him up he had jumped up and took a hold of her while holding the kunai to her neck. She felt bile rising through her throat as uneasiness came over her.

Before Chizuro even saw the signs, the young girl was throwing up violently; the girl's usually pale skin had betrayed nothing of her uneasiness. Kurenai could feel as the rough fabric started to become wet, her violent motions had most likely reopened her wound.

"Geez, took harder on you than I thought. The wound is only superficial, I managed to intervene before you were seriously harmed," Chizuro said nonchalantly, showing none of her uneasiness. In fact the girl had been very close to death, another second and she might've been dead. How Naruto knew the exact way to hold someone to restrict all movement to break free and the most efficient way to kill a person from that position she didn't know, at least neither she or Inu of the ANBU had taught the boy assassination techniques so far.

Kurenai couldn't find the strength to say anything and when Chizuro filled up a glass of water and offered it she took it greedily, savoring the feeling of the cold liquid running down her suddenly dry throat, washing away the awful taste. As soon as she sat the glass on the nightstand Chizuro was on her, removing her top and started to remove the bandages.

To Chizuro's relief the bleeding had diminished and was now only slowly coming out from the wound. All she had to do was to clean away all the blood that were around the wounded area and then redress the wound. She didn't know how much more blood loss the girl could take; had it been worse Chizuro would probably have had to give the girl a blood pill to replenish the girl's blood to an extent. Applying the dressing and wrapping bandages to keep it in place Chizuro nodded in satisfaction as she put the top back on Kurenai.

"Could we please keep this quiet, we'll have to see what Naruto have to say about this. From what I gathered he wasn't himself there," Chizuro asked apologetically. _'Should get this sorted before we come back to Konoha, I don't need to have something else that the council dislikes about me.'_

* * *

Konohagakure no Sato was bustling with activity as the village was preparing for the festival of fire. The village's population was unusually collected, most shinobi being able to return to the village to partake in the festivities, at least for a couple of days. Militarily this was the time when Hi no Kuni was at its weakest with only minimal border patrols. None of that mattered to the two men standing atop the Hokage monument, their purpose was to scout out a certain boy, and intimidate some people.

"So they are gonna kill them all now you say?" the larger of the two said as he re-adjusted his sword.

"Well, the Hokage is trying everything he can, but no doubt they will use underhanded tactics to get rid of them," his partner answered without emotion as he watched some of the younger generation run down the streets of Konoha. He estimated they were ten years old, silently he found himself wondering whether his brother was among them. Shaking his head to remove any fantasies he once again focused on the task at hand. The two had found that their primary target was nowhere in the village, hence why they were moving up to objective two. From what they had found out that he was out of the village at this time for a mission, an unusual time for mission for genin shinobi.

* * *

"Hokage-sama, we've detected intruders within Konoha," the ANBU had appeared in a cloud of smoke before the elderly man and was bowing deeply to him, awaiting orders.

"Do we know the identities of these intruders?" The Hokage questioned after he had taking a long drag on his pipe.

"No, we do not. They are garbed in black cloaks with red clouds, wearing straw hats so we have been unable to identify them. My deepest apologies Hokage-sama for being unable to provide you more information,"

The Hokage showed no emotions but on the inside his brain was working at a high pace. He could either choose to ignore them, he could guess their objective, or he could have his ANBU move in to interfere.

"Hokage-sama, I would advise you to decide swiftly, my team is ready to engage them at a moment's notice,"

"No need to be so hasty Tsubame-kun, these people are currently not our enemies, nor are they our allies. Observe them; don't move in to interfere unless they attack civilians."

Though not understanding the orders the ANBU relayed the orders to his team before bowing to the Hokage and exiting the room to join his team.

"So, they did come after all," the Hokage said aloud. "Itachi, what are you planning?"

"Showing some of Konoha's respectable elders the errors in their ways," a voice spoke just to the left of the Hokage. "I appreciate the hard work you're doing, but it seems they do not fully understand the picture. My old captain might have left the village, but that doesn't mean they can take the opportunity to kill the few remaining Uchiha."

"Itachi, know that if you kill someone I will be relieved of the promise I made to you," the Hokage said without emotion, a gently flowing breeze coming from the now opened window was the only proof of the presence of the younger ninja.

"I need a replacement soon," the Sandaime said as he took another deep drag from his pipe. He found himself reminiscing about the short time eleven years earlier when he had been able to be at home and take it easy while Minato was the Yondaime Hokage.

It took ten minutes before the entire ANBU squad seven was in his office, "Hokage-sama, the men we tracked managed to enter the chamber of the council, when we entered the chambers we found another two men there dressed in similar garb, the men we tracked both dissolved into smoke, apparently we were led on a goose chase. In the council chambers we found several of the elders, among them Danzō and your two former teammates, all of the unconscious. When we moved in to engage the two managed to escape through with the aid of a smoke bomb. Since the elders were deemed to be priority we decided not to pursue the infiltrators since your wish not to create too much commotion and we were told they were not our enemies."

"Very well handled Tsubame-san, I couldn't have wished for a better outcome," the Hokage said.

"Hokage-sama, we allowed us to be led astray and some of our elders were attacked," the ANBU protested.

"The man you were dealing with is no amateur, I know his purpose and I allowed it to happen, it was all handled well by your men. You can now return to your patrol."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the team chorused before they all left the room using shunshin.

* * *

"Sasuke-kun, do you want to join us?" the blonde girl asked her crush as she spotted him walking down the main street of Konoha alone.

"No," was the blunt response from the raven haired boy, he disliked events such as these. Instead he would use the time to train to get stronger so he could track down the killer of his clan and get his revenge.

"Ino, come on, we're losing this! Don't stand there with the stuck up prick, you'll get hit!" one of the girl's friends yelled out as he almost got nailed by a special shuriken that upon impact transformed into water, similar to the effect of mizu bunshin when they are destroyed.

"Too late!" one of the boys on the other team yelled out as a barrage of special kunai was sent at the blonde girl. To the boy's surprise the girl dodged them all, only to let them all land on Sasuke who was spurting out the water the kunai had transformed into. Soon the boy found himself dodging the same type of kunai as a wet Uchiha joined the fray.

"All forces, attack the Uchiha!" one of the brown haired boys declared as his dog yipped its approval of the order.

"Which one of the Uchiha, Kiba-san? As far as I can perceive there are two Uchiha in this game, one being Uchiha Sasuke on the opposing team while we also have Uchiha Rie on our own team," a boy wearing a heavy coat and his eyes covered by sunglasses asked.

"The opposing one baka, it's not wise to attack Rie-san. She's as scary as nee-chan when angered." Kiba retorted as he dodged a shuriken sent from Ino, only to receive another, heavier, barrage sent from the girl he just mentioned.

The Chūnin which had been sent to investigate the complaints from the civilian populace had about getting attacked by kids had, and to stop said kids from throwing their watery projectiles, had found it much more amusing to watch them drench people in water as they launched barrages of shuriken and kunai. The source of those 'weapons' was so far unknown, but they had appeared about a month earlier. Rumors said it was an ANBU captain who developed them as a way to train without any immediate danger to the practitioners.

"Amusing, isn't it?" a voice said, surprising the Chūnin as he was focused intently on the academy students. Turning around he could see a silver haired Jōnin, his face mostly deep within an orange book that the Chūnin had been trying to lay his hands on, to no success due the shortage of the wildly popular books. "Aren't you going to stop them, I heard the civilians are starting to be annoyed at the kids,"

"No, it's festival time. I know how important it is for the kids to have some fun and I don't want to rob them off it. Better be kids while they can, soon enough they will have to go into the real world where joyous moments are much fewer."

The silver haired man only sighed deeply as he closed his book, "Kid, there are still plenty of joyous moments in our lives. Even as a Jōnin they are plentiful, we have gruesome jobs sometimes yes, but watching your team succeed, saving a life, tutoring the joy, those things certainly brings joy," the silver haired man said.

"True, knowing that I help people certainly makes me feel warm…" the Chūnin was beckoned to come closer before he could continue.

"And well, this always brings joyous moments," the silver haired man said as he let the younger man read a page in his orange book and soon the two men were both giggling like schoolgirls looking at a picture of the biggest boy-band idol. Their moment of joy was utterly crushed however when a barrage of watery projectiles went astray, drenching the men and sending the orange book skidding over the roof, landing on the ground with a sloshing thud.

* * *

She could have sworn she had heard Kakashi cry out for "His precious", but shook it off as her imagination. Currently she had to deal with her blond student, she had to find out the cause of his attack, but without fancy techniques such as those the Yamanaka had, she had to use a reverse time jutsu to have Naruto tell her anything he remembered.

"Naruto!" her harsh tone snapped the boy out of his reverie. After being told the events that happened on the roof the boy had been quiet and just sat on the bed in the room he had been given as a replacement for the room in which the girl from the previous evening was using.

"Yes, sensei?" the blond said dejectedly.

"I'm going to use a jutsu that will hypnotize you to learn what happened earlier, is that okay?"

"Yes," as she received the go ahead she formed the seals and soon Naruto was in a semi-conscious state.

"Naruto, what was you doing during the night?" Chizuro questioned, starting with an easy question.

"I was holding watch as I was ordered by Chizuro-sensei."

"When Kurenai came to relieve you, you attacked her and held a kunai to her throat drawing blood, why were you doing that?"

"What? I saw a Iwa-nin and moved to silence him before he could signal to his group, that's all that happened."

"Where exactly was this?" Chizuro questioned, Naruto seemed earnestly convinced that had been the situation.

"It was in the southern part of Iwa territory,"

"Who are you?" Chizuro questioned, obviously Naruto was disillusioned with something. It seemed like Naruto had a split personality while he was asleep.

"Namikaze Minato,"

"What was your mission?"

"To infiltrate Iwa and kill the Tsuchikage,"

"Okay that's enough," Chizuro released the jutsu, something that prompted Naruto to fall asleep as the strain on him was lifted as memories from something that sat deep within the recesses of his brain returned back to their place. There was something odd about it all she concluded, Naruto thought he was Minato, and Chizuro had concluded that most likely he had subconsciously done whatever Minato was doing in the scenario, though Naruto was intercepted by Chizuro, something Minato was not. Chizuro had decided on what action she should do, even though the Hokage would resent her for the action she was about to perform she started to form seals to an intricate and advanced genjutsu. Though it was advanced and ranked as an A-rank genjutsu it had no combat value, its only purpose was to wipe a person's memories over a short span of time, at most being a week; in this case being half a day. It could however have several severe backlashes, not only to the target but also to the user; the most common one was a total amnesia which usually wasn't possible to recover from. After doing it on Naruto she returned to Kurenai, to her relief she noted that the girl was fast asleep making the process much easier. She would just have to come up with a good explanation for the bandages. Luckily Hana wasn't aware of the events so she wouldn't need to wipe her memories as well. Now only one problem remained, the girl in Naruto's old room.

* * *

Opening the door and peering inside she could see that no sign of the girl. Looking at the window she saw it was still closed, and she hadn't seen or heard anyone leave the room either, so she ought to be somewhere within the room still. Opening the closet she found the girl curled up in a corner, shielding herself with her arms. She didn't know whether to pity the girl or laugh, that wouldn't protect her in the least. Taking a deep breath she brought out her sweetest tone of voice, "I'm not here to hurt you, promise, I'm a Konoha Kunoichi, I've sworn to protect Hi no kuni."

"Really?" the girl sounded doubtful as she peered out at her, still holding her arms in front of her.

"Yes. Honestly I could've killed you many times already; you really can't avoid getting killed when you sit like that," Chizuro said truthfully while trying to sound as friendly as possible.

The girl just dejectedly stared down at the floor as tears started to stream down her face.

"No no, don't cry please, you're civilian, really, you shouldn't take any offense, I'm a kunoichi, I know hundreds of ways to kill people," Chizuro said which only seemed to make matters worse. Thinking hardly to find a way to stop the girl's crying an old memory surfaced to her.

* * *

_A week earlier she had arrived in her new home, Konohagakure no Sato. She had found herself shunned by the populace, apparently the rumors around spread faster than the nice man who was taking care of her had expected. She was known as being an accomplice of Orochimaru, having been with the man for the last three years, no-one seemed to care that it had been Orochimaru who had been holding her captured. Angry at the new village she had run away, not caring where her legs took her while tears streamed down her face uncontrollably. When her body decided it could take no more she found herself on the middle of a large field. Standing there was the nice man taking care of her, his long white hair flowing in the wind. She tried to recover from her dreary state so that the man wouldn't have to see it, but she just couldn't make the tears stop or stop the sobs. It wasn't long until the man's finely honed senses picked up the sounds she was making._

_Before she knew it she found the man embracing her, asking what was wrong. However she was unable to respond as his niceness only prompted her to cry even harder. She didn't know for how long he stood there saying soothing words to her and letting her cry onto his chest, drenching the west with tears, but when she finally couldn't cry anymore she felt better and could start to tell the man about what was upsetting her._

* * *

The girl felt the woman embrace her as she cried; telling her that she was safe and no-one would be able to hurt her here. After what felt like hours she found herself unable to cry anymore, but unlike the other times when she had run out of tears she felt better now.

She couldn't come up with anything to say other than a simple "Thank you," to the woman. She really didn't understand why but she truly felt safe in the woman's embrace.

"You're welcome. If you don't mind me asking, what is your name?" Chizuro said smilingly, she had a nagging feeling that she had seen that face before.

"Minamoto Miki," the girl reluctantly responded after a while. The last name did give off a bell within her mind, but the Minamoto she knew of was one of the elite jōnin that participated in the coup d'état in Iwa during the third war. He had been one of the ringleader's closest men and had singlehandedly been responsible for the death of the rearguard. Last she heard he was the commander of the Iwa forces, second only to the Tsuchikage.

"So you're Minamoto Yajiro's daughter?" she said questioned_. 'Why would a respectable man's daughter be sent to Hi no Kuni? To be abused even. No sane parent would send their child to a country where the people housed an innate hate for one's country.'_

"Only by name and blood; I don't see that man as my father. What he did to my mother is unforgiveable," Miki said with venom. Unknowingly it seemed like she was tapping into her chakra which was now violently flowing around her in visible wisps. "After he killed mother, being hailed as a hero for killing her, he sent me away to this country." Her chakra output was that of a high Chūnin now, most impressive to say the least.

"Who was your mother?" Chizuro softly asked; the girl seemed to hold a lot of respect for her mother.

"Kiritani Setsuna," the girl visibly calmed as her chakra output decreased to that of a usual civilian, her tone had been reverent.

Kiritani Setsuna, one of the more prominent jōnin directly under the Tsuchikage's command. One of the few persons who remained by the Tsuchikage's side during the coup d'état, from what Chizuro had heard she had been knocked out by Minato Namikaze early in the fight. That she had survived the fight where it was said every single follower of the Tsuchikage was mercilessly slaughtered came as a surprise to Chizuro.

"When and why was she killed if I may ask?"

"She was killed five years ago, officially in Iwa she was killed when trying to assassinate the Tsuchikage, in truth she was killed when Yajiro found her teaching me a ninjutsu, apparently 'traitors' weren't allow to teach their children how to use anything related to being a ninja. I treasured the moments I was able to get with my mother, they were afraid I would do something that they disliked. I was supposed to be their greatest trump-card; they had some snake-eyed man inject some weird liquid in with syringes. Just look at what it did to my eyes, they were once green!" the girl almost broke down crying again, hadn't all her tears already been drained. Silently Chizuro vowed to protect the girl.

* * *

"Sensei, do you really think her parents were possessed by demons?" Hana questioned as her teacher walked out of what used to be Naruto's room.

"No," Chizuro said deliberately, "But one of them definitely was one, that man is no better today than he was fifteen years ago,"

"You knew him?" Hana questioned, it was said the girl was from Iwa so the threads didn't connect how a Konoha jōnin knew someone from Iwa.

"Personally no, but I know who he was. He was the captain of the Sandaime Tsuchikage's rearguard, and also the one to wipe out the entire rearguard. During the assassination of the Sandaime Tsuchikage that was what killed the Tsuchikage along with the few men who stayed by his side. Later he was one of the driving forces that got the Yondaime Tsuchikage to power, darkening everything in Iwa so that the assassination of the Sandaime Tsuchikage pointed to the late Yondaime Hokage as the single killer of all the forces along with the Sandaime. Supposedly Konoha had helped in the assassination of the Sandaime Tsuchikage to the sweet promise of peace once the current Tsuchikage received the title of kage, but once the Sandaime was dead the war only intensified, Iwa shinobi fueled by the renewed hate for Kiroi no Senkō. All those men was to give people more reason to fight that war, deceit was their weapon and it worked out just like their plans, the only miscalculation was Kirigakure no Satō joining on the Konoha side which cost Iwa the war," Chizuro explained. "Their actions brought deaths that could have been avoided, in a single strike action over a thousand men were killed all over Iwa for being too loyal to the Sandaime, and then there was the continued deaths during the war. The Yondaime Tsuchikage lifted the law about avoiding combat in neutral towns bringing in civilian victims. People like those… truly they are demons of this world."

Hana had been wondering about if Chizuro knew the man, a simple yes or no would have sufficed but Chizuro had drawn a history lesson out of it all. What she heard was everything news to her, in the academy they were taught that the Yondaime played a vital part of a very important mission that, though a success, did not yield the after sought result. The third war was of great interest to the Inuzuka heiress, she had read countless books about it yet this was something new to her, the specifics of the Sandaime Tsuchikage's death wasn't even mentioned in the history books, the change of kage within Iwa was only briefly mentioned; and then it was mentioned as the Sandaime Tsuchikage passing on the title to someone younger. Though oddly enough he was never mentioned again in the history books, like he had been engulfed by the earth.

"Sensei, how come what you just told me wasn't in the history books?" Hana questioned, and saw Chizuro's changed into surprise.

"Aw crap, wasn't supposed to say that! Hana, don't speak of that, it's highly classified A-class secret." Chizuro said pleadingly. She hoped she could place that much trust in Hana, she didn't want to tempt fate with using the mind blank jutsu a third time in a single day, the statistical chances of it backfiring being twenty percent.

"Sure sensei, I won't tell, if you buy me something nice," Hana said mischievously.

"Why you little… all right, I'll buy you something in Konoha," Chizuro said reluctantly while planning out some 'training' for Hana that some would call punishment, unless they were Maito Gai.

* * *

The festival of fire was started that evening, the celebration in Konohagakure no Satō paled in comparison to the one they held in Tengai. As the sun settled massive fireworks were fired off, lightning up the sky in various colors. The team from Konoha early found that the inn owner wasn't kidding when he said there would be a lot of drunken people roaming about. The inn, having the bar with the cheapest prices on the main street, was crowded so the Konoha team was busy controlling the patrons so that they didn't get too drunk, once they've reached the limit they tried to remove them from the inn peacefully.

Some people they didn't make it to in time though as that last bottle of sake came into effect. More persons that Chizuro would like to remember had tried to grope her, each and every one meeting the same fate, thrown headfirst out the door. In all this one of them was always supervising Miki, Chizuro claiming that as Konoha shinobi they couldn't ignore such injustice; Naruto whole-heartily agreeing with her. So there was always one making sure no-one threatening came to take away the girl.

As the days progressed the people that were prone to getting drunk steadily decreased when the rumors about ninjas guarding the inn spread. By the end of the festival weeks they actually had nothing to do. When the festival finally came to a close a happy team of genin stood there along with their jōnin-sensei. Amazingly no-one questioned her when she said Kurenai had received a scratch on her neck while training and after that she had taken great care to see to that it always was herself that replaced Naruto from guards shifts or woke him up to avoid any more accidents. Now with the mission over with only one obstacle remained, taking the girl out of Tengai without getting caught. From what Chizuro gathered the girl was used as a slave rather than a servant, slavery being outlawed in Hi no Kuni she would use that as an excuse back in Konoha as to why the girl would be allowed to have citizenship in the village.

"Why do you have that demon child with you?" Hayashimizu questioned as she saw the girl with silvery hair that now was accompanying the team.

"She's under our protection from now, what is being done to her is against Hi no Kuni law and therefore we'll take her to Konoha for further protection," Chizuro said determinedly.

"I see… well best wishes to you and your team then Yukino-san, I'll pray for that child not to kill you," Hayashimizu said as he bowed to the team.

Without giving a response Chizuro motioned for the team to move out, the girl following.

"Miki-san, could you please climb up on my back?" Chizuro requested once they were outside the inn as she crouched down. The girl obediently climbed up on the older woman's back, "Hold on," was all Chizuro said once she felt that she had a good grip on the girl before the team sat off along the rooftops with Chizuro in the lead.

* * *

"Milord, we've localized the gift from Iwa. She's in the hand of some Konoha shinobi," a man garbed in black said to Matsugawa Shibuya. "We've concluded that they are taking her from Tengai, at least if this man is telling the truth," a beaten man was taken in through the large door by two men.

"Who is that?" Matsugawa questioned, deeming from the robes he was rather wealthy yet he didn't recognize the man, knowing each and every rich person in Tengai was something Shibuya felt proud about.

"Hayashimizu Kensei, he hired that Konoha team, we assume that it was at his inn they hid the girl as well,"

"I didn't know they were housing her, had I known I would've thrown them out Matsugawa-sama," Hayashimizu pleaded.



"I believe the man, just dump him in the dungeon, no need to kill him since we might have a later use for him," the noble said, the two men giving him a bow before taking the protesting man away.

"What do you wish to be done about the girl?" the leader of his men asked once the door to the room was closed.

"Kill the team, bring back the girl. From what our friends in Iwa said she'll be vital for the operation,"

"I'll send my men after them, you'll have their heads soon milord and once again the girl shall be back here," the black garbed man said before disappearing.

* * *

Trivia Section;

The Festival of Fire; A large festival commemorating the birth of the Fire Country in the beginning of March, lasting for 3 weeks in most places with the exception of Konoha where due to military reasons it is much shorter. Think summer festival, only much bigger.

A/N: woho, made it on the day I decided on, amazingly. Well as you probably can guess, finally some action next chapter as the team will be returning to their home. Oh btw, the poll have been closed, evidently people liked Naruto/Hana/Kurenai a lot, however I've reached the conclusion it won't be done like that. Women usually don't like to share and from my view both of these women are headstrong so it won't be happening, you perverts out there can be sad. (Doesn't sound good to me either tbh with two girls and one boy, I just wanted opinions for that, too few votes in total for it to happen.) Well until next time then.

Feel free to review!


	6. Temple rumble

"I'll pay you back for this, You…" the blonde was stopped from speaking any further as she was stabbed again through her chest. The pool of blood that had been collecting around her was refreshed with new vigor as the freshest wound allowed even more blood to freely flow from the body. The man stood still while still holding onto the blonde woman's hair, his sword buried deep into floor.

'_The tatami mats sure soak up blood rather well… Never thought of that before,'_ he absently noted as he withdrew the blade from the body.

"This is Kagerashin, first target neutralized, no-one noticed me entering the area, Kagura is missing though, I think he went after some spoils," he reported over his small com-unit.

"Second and third target secured, fourth have been isolated. Primary target secured as well, Kagura just arrived with to our position, maybe he realized it might be best to take the spoils we've acquired here first and then go after the other possible ones in the main building," his second in command responded over the com unit.

* * *

"No!" a muffled scream from an adjacent room was what awakened Naruto from his slumber. Dressed in pajamas, a kunai in his hand, he cautiously approached the door as the hallway was dark and thus no shadows were cast on the walls. Trying to open the door he found himself unable to do so as it was like it sealed shut.

Trying to use the kunai to cut open the door proved futile, it was like the thin material the door consisted of had been reinforced somehow. He was just about to attempt using something with more punch, but just as he applied one of the directed high-yield explosive notes he had in his possession a hole unceremoniously appeared on the door as one of the priestesses working at the temple fell through it, a sword buried in her lower abdomen. As a dark shadow stepped through the hole he found himself frozen in fear as he saw the man take hold of the sword; withdrawing it from the woman while holding a hand over the priestess mouth, stopping her screams from reaching far.

"Now be a good girl and be quiet," the man said as he used the tip of the weapon to make a cut through the robes the priestess wore. The aura the man emitted was that of pure terror and death, making Naruto unable to move even if he had wanted, he knew that if he made his presence known to the man who was occupied with the young woman he would die.

The sudden shimmering object visible for but a moment surprised Naruto, following the general direction it was headed in he found that the man who up until just a moment had been fondling the young woman's breast had almost frozen, a long needle sticking out from his neck; the only indication of him being alive was the moving of his head which slowly was turning in the direction of the hole he had made just moments ago.

"Ka… gu… ra…?" the man's voice was uncertain as he spoke to someone Naruto was unable to see from his position. A moment later several more glimmering objects came through the hole, each and every one appearing on the major nerve-clusters on the man's body.

"Kagura… who is that?" a voice spoke from the other side of the door, not giving away any gender as it was neither feminine nor masculine. A shadow rushed through the hole, a moment later the man's head had been separated from its body. The splash of blood that was sent from the blade as it cut through the man's neck awakened Naruto from his frozen state as the holder of the blade turned around to him.

"You! What are you doing!?" the tip of the blade was just barely touching Naruto's throat, the blood sticking to his skin as it was starting to dry. "Stop quivering there in fear, your teammates and the other priestesses need your help, lest they will end up like that girl,"

The sword was no longer pointing at Naruto's throat, instead it pointed to the unmoving body of the half naked priestess. Her eye-lids were open, the eyes staring at the ceiling though they were unseeing.

Instead of jumping up like the person holding the blade the young boy started to curse himself for being unable to save the girl. The person that held the sword just found it too pathetic as the boy mumbled curses on himself and raised its hand, slapping him hard.

"Pull yourself together!" the harsh and agitated voice of the person along with the throbbing sensation on his left cheek wakened Naruto from his mental self-abuse for a moment, "There was nothing you could've done against him, you're a mere genin, the difference was too big. He was a Chūnin in Iwa when he left from there fifteen years ago. There's no way you as a fresh out of the academy genin could defeat him. Luckily for you there were only three persons in the group that's attacked us that were of that rank or higher and now two of those are dead. So pull yourself together and go and help the others here before anyone else dies, if you don't pull yourself together then you better just stay here, in your current state you'll be more of a liability than you'd be helping out."

Before Naruto had a chance to say anything the person was gone without a sound, the only sign on its presence was the decapitated nuke-nin and his victim.

* * *

Kagerashin could feel that something was off as he rushed over the courtyard from the Jōnin's room to where the genin and their primary target where housed. As if to confirm his fears he heard a explosion coming from the area where the genin and their target where supposed to be.

Opening the door to where his team was supposed to be found his fears came to realization as the members of his team laid there unmoving and three young girls sat there in frightened silence, the two Konoha genin had had their clothes torn to pieces; most likely his men were the ones responsible for that.

Before he had taken three steps into the room he heard a light whistling sound and quickly somersaulted backwards; narrowly avoiding being cut into half by a person who looked just like Kagura. _'The Jōnin had me fooled from the beginning!?'_ He was unable to believe it, but looking at it; it had to be true. The person he killed earlier hadn't been the sensei of the genin team, rather it had been his own second-in-command.

"Ho, I see you realized who you killed," the person imitating Kagura said mockingly as the features became distorted for a moment before they took on a woman's appearance. "Do you know exactly how I did it now?"

"In the moment of the attack you switched yourself with Kagura and laid a genjutsu on us both, fooling me to think you were Kagura and he was you while Kagura thought you to be me. I swear, I'll avenge him!" Kagerashin announced as he took out some shuriken and threw them at the jōnin.

Like he expected the jōnin moved to dodge them and he attacked with his sword which had been his real intent. There was no way that she would be able to dodge the attack.

She watched the man stand on his knees in disbelief, his eyes slowly moving between the hilt in his hand and the severed blade buried in the wall. "Your kind, you're really worthless,"

* * *

"I'm truly sorry about the mess that we've caused to you and your shrine," Chizuro said bowing to the head priestess of the shrine in which they had been staying.

"Truly it was unfortunate that Tateo-san got was dragged into this, but thanks to you her spirit can rest in peace. We all understand that there are certain dangers with housing ninja within our domains, but I we at the temple owe you our lives and are all ready to sacrifice ourselves for you," the head priestess said, motioning for Chizuro to rise up again.

"But…" the Konoha jōnin tried.

"But nothing, no-one blames you for what happened, now return to Konoha safely to honor Tateo-san's death."

"Yes, we shall do that," Chizuro said downtrotten before bowing once again to the head-priestess.

"I will pray for your safe return to Konoha," the priestess said.

"Yes, thank you, then we'll be leaving."

* * *

"I'm sorry master, my men didn't manage to intercept the Konoha team and retake the girl, by now they are most likely in Konoha," the burly man said as he heard soft footsteps on the floor, though he haven't heard anyone open the door.

"Excellent, everything is going according to plan then,"

"You mean that she was supposed to be taken to Konoha? Then why did I have to sacrifice my men!"

"It was necessary to fool those Konoha scum, I have to take my leave now before your supervisors suspect anything. Those Konoha dogs spying on you are no fools."

* * *



The Sandaime Hokage's eyes were darting between the members of Chizuro's team and the girl that they had brought with them from Tengai as he silently puffed on his pipe. This would give him a sore headache, he was sure of it. Just having heard a quick debriefing of the mission from Chizuro had him anticipating at least fifty pages of paperwork to go through for the mission alone, there was also correspondence he would have to have with other villages regarding the bounty placed on the men that had been killed by Chizuro. All in all Chizuro's team had most likely managed to get him in one day's worth of paperwork, alone. It was much easier when everything had been prepared before hand as it usually was when a mission objective had been fulfilled without any major changes; then it was just a matter of signing single document.

"Naruto-kun, Hana-san and Kurenai-san, I have a mission for you, simple D-rank. Please take care of Miki-san until Chizuro and I have discussed a few things. She'll find you wherever you decide to go. Dismissed."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," the entire team chorused before the three genin took the girl with them, leaving the Hokage and Chizuro as the lone persons in the room.

"So what is it you wish to discuss, Hokage-sama?" Chizuro questioned as she watched the elder man perform a few seals, when the sequence ended she heard the door's lock click in place.

"Minamoto Miki, and Matsugawa Shibuya who made her into a slave of sorts according to your words," the Hokage said as he put down his pipe on the desk. "Are you sure that what she told was true, her father is Minamoto Yajiro?"

"Yes, as far as I could tell she was telling no lies about it. However she doesn't seem to show him any affection to him, rather she houses a hate for that man; especially since he killed her mother who seems to have been her only light."

"That man, Matsugawa Shibuya, what would you say about his character?" the Sandaime questioned.

"Despicable, that's the only word that would describe that man, handling a child like that. I didn't get to observe him for long, so I can't peg down his character." Chizuro responded in a neutral voice.

"Sad as it is, we can do nothing about him, even though we've been surveying him from the shadows in the last three years when some things around Tengai didn't work out quite as we planned. 'Shunki', 'Tōki', 'Kaki' and 'Shūki' have yet to uncover evidence of his involvement in the thwarting of our missions," The Sandaime said matter-of-factly. "Oh, they told me to tell you they were doing great, and they would still welcome you back to the team any time you wanted, seems like they do miss you."

"Well, who wouldn't want someone like me on their team," Chizuro said boastfully, refusing to show her happiness about it. She could still remember the members of that team as they had performed missions together like it had been the day before.

"Now, what do you propose we do about the girl? Even more important; does she know any taijutsu or other jutsus?"

"As far as I could tell she knows nothing of the basics, much less anything advanced"

"So she's no threat you would say?"

"Nah, not in any way as far as I can tell,"

"Then I will approve her citizenship within Konoha on one condition, you being the one who brought her in will be her guardian," Chizuro's usually stoic face fell as pure shock was the one emotion displayed.

"You can't honestly expect me to take care of a kid, that's like teaching Naruto how to make explosive notes, that's how bad it would be." Chizuro protested.

"Hm," Idly the Sandaime started to find the carvings on his pipe highly interesting as the subject of teaching Naruto how to make explosive notes, if only Chizuro knew the truth he in a way felt that he should fear for his life even though he logically could defeat Chizuro easily. "That's how it shall be, this is an order from the Sandaime Hokage," he said after a silent minute as Chizuro tried to stare holes in the elderly man. "Pick her up from her team and take her to her new home, of course the village will pay for most of the initial expenses for her,"

The Sandaime could tell that Chizuro wasn't satisfied with the decision when she slammed the door to the office as she walked out, the hinges flying while the door landed on the floor with a loud crash.

* * *

Locating her team had been no problem, she had simply found the shopping district empty of shoppers, the ground and walls soaked in water as watery projectiles still flew around. In the middle of this 'war' between academy students and genin on leave she could find her team along with Miki.

"Come on Hana-chan, get down that pesky Inuzuka boy! He's been taunting us for the last twenty minutes!" Naruto was clearly audible over the orders being flung around by the genin and academy students as they tried to co-ordinate their attacks. Just as her team was going to flung all their 'weapons' on the Inuzuka boy they felt themselves lifted by the collar of their clothes.

"Well well, playing ninja I see," Chizuro said whistfully, "Got my kid involved as well," Miki was just about to attempt throwing a 'shuriken' though it went completely off-course due to her imperfect aiming and technique.

"Yes sensei, the Hokage didn't tell us what to do, just take her with us and then my brother managed to get us involved in this," Hana said apologetically.

"Well now the mission is over, I'll take her from here," Chizuro said as she released the three genin roughly. "Off with you, tomorrow I'll allow you to rest, but the day after that usual time and place for training."

"Hai," her team chorused in a mix of joy and dread. Returning to the usual training was nothing to look forward to in the opinion.

Watching her team walk towards their homes she turned to the silver haired girl as they stood in the middle of the watery war-zone. "Let's go home, Miki-chan." Just as she stretched out her hand to the girl Chizuro felt something soft and cool impact on her cheek, half a moment later it became really cold and a liquid splashed over her.

"Who was that!?" the street which had been bustling with activity became quiet as a graveyard as the children ceased their activities. "No-one got guts enough to admit it? Well I guess I can't help but do this then." Taking out kunai and shuriken she started to expertly take out each and every boy and girl in the vicinity, her own weapons having been modified by the creator to be far more powerful and much colder to the ones available to the general public, as on per her request. They had proved to be very useful during her team's training where she could simulate combat without worrying about them getting hurt as they threw kunai and shuriken at each other, unless they stayed in their cold clothes of course and caught some diseases.

* * *

A/N: First of all, sorry about this being so short and taking such a time to get out to you peeps, hope you aren't too dissatisfied with the content either, originally I had another chapter but it kinda went too dark which would have forced me to up the rating and stuff (no, not because of lemons or something like that). I decided to put up this rather short chapter because I'll be going away for some time and won't have any access to a computer so might as well publish what I've come with so far. Anyways, please review.


	7. Chūnin exams

The Sandaime silently puffed on his pipe as he watched his teachers slowly started to fill up the room. He knew it would take another twenty minutes before all had arrived, even though the one who would appear last didn't have a team to nominate the Hokage felt the right to oppose any proposal was to be granted to everyone, thus he would wait. Especially since he suspected _she_ would nominate his team, then _he_ would be the one who knew if the team's greenhorn would make it or not.

The crowd was starting to get uneasy, usually when the Hokage called them he would get straight to the point, but now no one had shown up for the last fifteen minutes, yet silence prevailed in the room. _'Don't tell me we're waiting for the copy ninja,'_ Chizuro thought as she watched the Hokage take another deep drag from his pipe. After another minute she saw the Hokage rise and clear her throat, at the same time she felt someone bump into her. Looking to her left she could see that she had been right in her suspicions as all she saw was an orange cover.

"Welcome, I'm sure you can decipher from the people here what I'm about to speak about. In Two month's time, 13th of June, Chūnin exams will be held in Taki, and now I believe is the time to nominate the teams so that they can be excluded from missions in order to train properly. As I'm sure you know that to be eligible to participate in this exam they need to have performed a minimum of sixteen missions since this is outside of our own village, preferably they should have performed at least the double amount." The Hokage said, "First I would like to hear from the Jōnin training our newest genin if they have any nominees."

"Team one, led by Ugan Kakouton consisting of Sagara Tarosuke, Murozaki Senpachi and Hitsuga Mizuhiro. I believe that my team is not ready to participate in the examination."

"Team two, led by Kouha Mitsuka consisting of Aburame Shigi, Kazama Akatora and Genjō Goei. My belief is that my team will not yet be ready to participate in these exams for another year.

"Team five, led by Shiryu Keizo consisting of Iwata Kensuke, Nishikawa Eriko and Suzuki Kenta. I swear on my clan that my team is ready for the test by the time they come by." This statement led to whispers among the other assembled and betting about if they would manage to come past the second exam or not. "Next time that is." The man received glares from the assembled teachers as his unserious manner even existed when they were discussing matters as important as who to send out to represent their village.

"Team nine, led by Sakuyama Koukin consisting of Takashi Eiji, Shiozaki Daisuke and Matsugawa Riozake. I believe my team to not be ready for the exam.

"Team Chizuro, led by Yukino Chizuro consisting of Yūhi Kurenai, Inuzuka Hana and Uzumaki Naruto. The team is definitely not ready for the exams," the Hokage was surprised by the confident Jōnin's announcement. He had anticipated that she would nominate her team but for her to say they weren't ready at all was a complete surprise. It was the third year now without any rookie team being nominated for the exams.

"Well that's it, then Team Thirteen and Team Seven will be sent to participate in the exams to represent us, you may now leave. In a flash all of the teachers were gone, with the exception of two.

"Would you tell me why you didn't send your team to the exams now Chizuro, everyone's left now so, I'm sure Inu would like to know why his student wasn't sent on this exam." Kakashi said as he pocketed his orange book.

"They just aren't ready, their teamwork needs a lot more polishing than two months since the two girls aren't even stable. They've half been regressing back to the state they were after the rescue ever since that mission to Tengai. This is why I've stayed behind here, to discuss this matter with the Hokage."

"Hokage-sama, I request that my team is disbanded and that Yūhi Kurenai and Inuzuka Hana are put back on rehab or taken off the active shinobi rooster while Uzumaki Naruto is made to my apprentice."

The Hokage nearly choked on the smoke he just inhaled and started to cough. "Surely you can't be serious. They are still girls, give them some time and they will…" the Hokage stopped when he saw just how stony Chizuro looked.

"That's why I request them to be taken off my team, they gain nothing from being with me, you know how I've been taught. They will only be scarred from associating with me, Uzumaki while he haven't been a genin for the same amount of time, he does have the spirit needed if he just get someone to give him a hand along the way. But those two, I cannot help them with that. The ideas such as those, they were drilled into me from an early age, nowadays they occur first one a kunoichi actually becomes a genin. I might even say it's a flaw with Konoha's education system that the prospect occurs first at such a late time."

"The council will probably strike down on this; one of them is the heir to one of the more prominent clans of Konoha," Kakashi said seriously. "You'll be even more hated,"

"Then so be it, I don't care about the damn council," she said irately. _'Council be damned, I don't want people dying on me because the council wants it some way or not,'_

"Yukino-san, I have a request," it was seldom that the Sandaime was so formal when speaking with the blonde so she visibly calmed down. "You may not care, but I do. You're one of my most trusted shinobi, and as such I can't have the council trying to remove you from the active rooster, as is within their power to do. What I request is that your team and you go to a rather secluded spot outside of Hi no Kuni and train."

"Hokage-sama, with all due respect I said I don't want that team any…"

"I promise you, once you're back you will be free of all responsibilities to that team, I'll find someone else to take over the team."

"Okay, I suppose that is okay, IF you in addition promise that Icha Icha will be off the store shelves for a year within Konoha."

It hurt, it really hurt, but the Hokage had to agree if he wanted to keep her in the dry from the council. Kakashi watched in horror as the two shook hands to confirm the agreement, Volume seven was due the next day, and he was sure she was aware of that and it was the reason why she had that demand.

"And I want it declared on paper, now." Chizuro had a gleam in her eyes that sent a light sensation of fear through the Hokage and had Kakashi shaking.

* * *

Inuzuka Tsume felt relieved as she leisurely walked from the clan's dog pen while holding the leashes that held two dogs. It had been a long time, but finally the dogs that were to replace Hana's old companion were sufficiently in age to accompany her on training. It was Tsume's hope that the new companions would restore some of her daughters fire, what was at her home now was the shell of a Konoha Shinobi.

"Hana!" her daughter was surprised when Tsume burst into her room, the two puppies in tow. "Look what I got for you,"

"Mother… I have been thinking… Maybe I should quit being a kunoichi. I feel like I'll only disgrace our family further by continuing on this path," Hana felt that some yelling was the only thing to happen, but when she felt the stinging sensation against her cheek that sent her flying through her room as Tsume's fist met the cheek was beyond her imagination.

"You! Don't ever talk like that again. You're not a disgrace to our family, but if you give up on the path you chose years ago you will be. I've been telling these two members of our great family about you for weeks, and they've been expecting this day for a long time. They want to see you succeed as a kunoichi, they want to serve the one set to inherit the position as head of the clan," as to reaffirm Tsume's words the two dogs barked in affirmative.

"But…"

"No buts, you're an Inuzuka. We're a proud clan, we're known to brash, but at least we don't hesitate and show fear. Now are you apart of our clan along with _Yami_ and _Hikari_, or do you really wish to leave the way of the ninja?" with that Hana's mother stormed out of their house.

* * *

"Iruka-san, so tomorrow we'll start teaching," the silver-haired man said after he'd taken a sip from his saucer of sake.

"Yeah, it's going to be a nice change from the dangerous missions," his companion replied before taking a sip of his own.

"Well I'm happy we won't have to teach the demon brat, would be a pain in the ass to teach him,"

"I suppose so," Iruka said as he poured himself some more sake from the bottle.

"Suppose so? Didn't he kill your parents? I know I would be hell of a lot relieved to know that I wouldn't see his face for days on end,"

"Mizuki-san!" the tone in Iruka's voice made Mizuki freeze up for a moment, "Don't ever bring that up again, I don't want to remember. What's in the past is to stay in the past, what matters is now,"

"I would watch my tongue if I were you Mizuki, Iruka can be quite scary when angered,"

"Great, it's the bitch from the outside," Mizuki said sarcastically when Chizuro sat down in their booth. "Don't you have some other people to antagonize?"

"Mizuki!" Iruka's eyes were piercing and the silver-haired man felt himself shrink under their gaze.

"I think I'll go, gotta prepare for tomorrow, good night," Mizuki downed the bottle before slipping out of the bar.

"Was that really necessary Chizu-nē?" Iruka asked the blonde as she took the seat which Mizuki had been occupying.

"Well, he was bad mouthing my student, what'd you expect?"

"I see, so you're the one who's teaching him,"

"Yeah, along with Inuzuka Hana and Yūhi Kurenai,"

"Yūhi-san? Wasn't she under Kotomine-sensei?"

"He's dead, didn't you know?"

"No, this is all news to me. I had heard about 'that person' being the 'demon brat's teacher as the villages put it. But not that you had someone else under your wing."

"I was under the impression that you knew Yūhi rather well and it seems it isn't unfounded. She's even your neighbor isn't she?"

"Well, in the past I used to help her out that's true,"

"Yeah, I remember you talking about her in passing actually sometimes, not that'd I remember much of our conversations," Chizuro said while she drank the last of the contents in the bottle she had been holding. "Old man, one more!"

"How many are you at now?" Iruka questioned as a new bottle was presented to Chizuro.

"This is actually just the second, so no worries Iruka-kun, you won't have to look after my sorry drunken ass,"

"That's a relief to hear… even though it ends up that way anyway even if you say so,"

"Mou, you make it sound bad. I bet most men would be happy to look after me… That wasn't a question, so don't say anything," she said, effectively stopping his protests that he didn't want to watch after her.

"So how is it being a teacher?"

"It has its ups and downs, right now I have a major down though," Chizuro said exasperatedly before taking a big swig from the bottle of liquor. "Two of my students got problems with their attitudes, they're both too downtrodden, and that's where you come in."

"Me?" Iruka questioned. What did she plan him to do; he was just an ordinary chūnin who would start teaching at the academy the next day.

"Yeah you. You'll help Yūhi to get some spirit back, and I know just how," Iruka flat-out rejected the idea as soon as he heard it. Sometimes Chizuro's ideas were way over the top.

* * *

Kurenai was making her way to her apartment when she felt like she was being observed, but looking around her could see no one.

Taking out her key and putting it into the keyhole and starting to turn it, that was when she was stopped as one hand covered her mouth and she felt a sharp edge tingling against her back.

The young girl was frozen in her assaulter's hands, not daring to move. Even as she was moved away from her door she didn't attempt to break free, even though somewhere in the far recesses of her mind her training yelled for her to react.

"Scream and I'll put my weapon through you," the voice was rough as the assaulter removed the hand from her mouth and started to trail down her body.

"Kurenai, do something for kami's sake. You have genjutsu, taijutsu and ninjutsu at your disposal, yet you do nothing? Use some of your skills to break free," distantly she could hear her teacher yelling at her but her assaulter didn't seem to acknowledge it as his hand travelled lower. "Your pathetic state can't even take on a common thug. You should have been left for dead that night months ago, the ANBU saving you guys did all that in vain since you seem to be okay with meeting your end tonight."

Something within Kurenai wanted to prove her teacher wrong; she noticed that the weapon against her back slacked a little, which was when she acted. Elbowing the assaulter she spun around as she gripped the hand holding onto the weapon, wrenching it out of the assaulter's grip and taking it for herself. She lashed out with the weapon where she guessed the head was and heard a slight yelp before a smoke bomb went off, shrouding her vision.

When the smoke cleared the area was cleared, the only evidence was the kunai still held tightly in her right hand and the blood dripping off the weapon and the line that had gone from the weapon as it had been sailing through the air, leaving droplets on the walls of the apartment building. For several minutes she stood there unmoving.

When she regained her senses she walked back to her apartment in a daze. Once she reached her bed she simply collapsed and slipped into a dreamless sleep. She had silently resolved to never tell anyone of what happened that evening.

* * *

"Okay! Morning team, you girls looks like you've been through hell," Chizuro commented as the two female genin of her team looked to be in bad shape. The red mark on Hana's cheek was very visible even though the girl had been trying to mask it. She had heard by the way of mouth about what happened on the Inuzuka compound last night. Apparently it had made the clan leader go out for some drinking and some rumors spread very quickly in Konoha's bar district.

"So, big announcement today; in two months the Chūnin exams will be coming up,"

"What? So soon sensei?" Naruto said excited of the idea of Chūnin exams.

"You won't be attending those, you three are way below of the level where you can clear those exams. If my team enters those, then I want it to be at the top of them; I won't settle for just passing that damn thing like that old teacher of mine did."

"Then why would you tell us about it sensei?" Kurenai questioned. Wouldn't it be better not to have told them, now Naruto would be hung up about them.

"So that the lot of you has a goal to aim for, there'll be another test in eight months that I want you three to be at the level where you would rule them, now what I want to know is are you ready to train for it. Are you willing to commit yourselves to training?" her gaze was piercing.

"I know Naruto is ready, this question is to you two Yūhi, Inuzuka. You have the skills, you have the knowledge, what you lack is motivation it would seem. You got two new dogs Inuzuka, they seem willing to train, are you?"

The two girls stood there in an awkward silence as they fiddled with their equipment.

"I… I want to be stronger. I want to prove that I'm not weak, I'm not a dropout. So please, train me so I can become stronger sensei. I want to show that the Inuzuka aren't all brawn, that we're something to be reckoned with even outside of the heat of battle."

"I too want to prove myself, so bring it on sensei. I hate feeling powerless, so please."

"Perfect," Chizuro whispered to herself as she noticed a slight change in the girls eyes that had been lurking there since she first saw them, but only now became clearly visible. "Then pack some gear, we're leaving Konoha, meet me at the main gates in an hour, pack lightly. We will be training for quite some while outside of the village and most equipment can be found on site. I'll give you more information at a later point, dismissed."

The three students left their teacher along with her protégé at the training grounds.

"So, now it's just you and me, left Miki-chan. I'll be gone for quite a while and sadly you can't follow. But you'll be taken care of, the Hokage promised to assign you a good guardian for while I'm gone. So let's go home and get your stuff together and get you to the old man's office," Chizuro said.

* * *

Naruto found that Taki was much more humid than Hi no Kuni, the swamp they traveled in reeked of decay. They had silently been following Chizuro with utmost caution as they traveled small paths used by the animals living within the swamp. _'Why did they have to put an outpost in here, honestly this must be the most ridiculous thing ever,'_ just as Naruto was about to voice his thoughts Chizuro's hand shot up in the air, signaling for them to lay down and roll to the sides.

He had to fight the nausea that overcame him as he rolled into the murky and grimy water, and he could bet that Hana and her dogs were undoubtedly faring no better than him. He had not real discerning understanding to why Chizuro had told them to jump down; the heavy rain had lifted over two hours ago so they should be able to either smell or hear anyone approaching before they were within visible range. From Chizuro's reaction though it seemed like she had spotted something, they hadn't walked on any traps either so the team was wondering why she had reacted.

"Come on out," a male voice said, shaking the whole team to the core, they had only been within the swamp for a day and there was another two days travel to reach the outpost at the level of caution they needed to hold, and they had already been found out. Looking to his right Naruto could spot a pair of legs, probably belonging to the owner of the voice.

Naruto was about to stand up when he saw the man's knees buckle before hitting the ground, at the same time he felt a warm liquid splash across him. A moment later Naruto was staring at the surprised yet lifeless face of a Taki-shinobi who was bleeding profusely from the side of his neck. That was when a hand reached down for the shocked Naruto and helped him up to his feet. Looking up at the person helping him he spotted an animal mask; an eagle to be precise, on his arm was a leaf mark affirming that he was Konoha ANBU.

"You need to be more careful, Yukino-senpai, you're lucky we were in the vicinity." the ANBU wearing the eagle mask said. The voice had been melodic yet it was distinguishly male.

"No need to worry, Washi-_bozu,_" Chizuro said with venom, "I could have dealt with them just fine, I just didn't feel like wasting my energy, besides it would be good for my student's to see that they aren't all that and can be taken in the unawares of, to them, vastly superior enemies,"

Naruto could feel that "Washi" reeked of decay just as much as the surrounding area was, and so did the three other ANBU as well _'Don't they ever wash?' _

Thanks to the arrival of the ANBU they could travel at the usual pace, reaching the outpost before the second day was over. At first the three genin were perplexed as to why they had stopped, but when Washi went through a number of handseals a cave rose from the ground, revealing a stairwell reaching far below.

"Welcome to Ten no Hi where you'll spent quite a while of your time as genin."

* * *

"Hokage-sama… I can't take it anymore! The kid will drive me insane, she just won't give up about Chizuro. Please let me take her to Chizuro, I want some peace in my home. I'll do anything…" the silver-haired Jōnin pleaded.

"She's been in your care for just three days, and you're already breaking down? This is not quite like…"

"She's a monster, taught by the greatest monster of all of Konoha; Chizuro."

"…"

"She took my precious books and placed them somewhere! And I just got my hand on them, had to buy the latest volume at a ridiculous price outside of Konoha!"

"I feel your pain Kakashi-kun, but really, Chizuro can't have made that much of an impact on the girl, she only spent a few weeks with her. I'm sure you can reverse whatever influence she may have had on her. Now if you excuse me I have more important matters to attend to," the Hokage said as he gently pulled the almost crying Kakashi away from his desk and led him out the door.

Once the door was closed and locked the Hokage seated himself comfortably his chair and opened his topmost drawer, lifting up the bottom of the drawer revealed a hidden compartment where a mint condition Icha Icha Paradise volume seven laid. It had cost him a hefty amount of money, but it was worth it.

Just outside of Konoha a, to the Hokage vaguely familiar, man was selling the orange books at an inflated price. The usual price was 1500 ryō for the books, but that vendor sold them for 15000 ryō. It was a total rip-off, yet the Hokage had noted a steady stream of customers visiting the man. The one behind the business idea was a genius.

* * *

His swiftness was overwhelming as he ploughed through the room, killing the occupants with practiced ease. The enemy had been busy taking advantage of the priestesses of the temple and hadn't noticed his approach, when he struck they were unprepared, and even after a few seconds the enemy hadn't regained their bearings. Their defense was feeble, almost as if they hadn't received any training with the exception of the first man he attacked who almost escaped his attack. Now standing alone in the room there was only one enemy left who stood by the dying body of the first man to fall to his blades. Slowly approaching the last man he readied his two swords, noting the blood dripping slowly from them.

It was just when he was about to use his two blades to slice of the enemy's head when a sudden nausea hit him and the room started to contort as his vision also darkened. No longer were the room full with enemy shinobi or dead and raped priestesses; instead the room contained the bodies of servants and by his feet laid the Tsuchikage, gasping for air as blood trickled down from his mouth.

The person whose his two blades had a light connection with drawing blood was no other than a seven year old girl who he recognized as the Tsuchikage's daughter. He watched as her tears continued to fall even as his vision darkened, from the edge of his fading vision two figures were approaching.

"That's one powerful technique you have there, to be able to control even the Kiroi no Senkō, you're a powerful man," one of them said as his world started to tilt and the grip on his blades loosened.

"I was lucky he trusted me completely, otherwise there would be no way for me to take control of him," the other person responed. "So now about the agreement, you got your part of the deal, now there's time for mine,"

"Yeah, you have free hands to choose any of our prisoners and the Sandaime Tsuchikage's followers to be your test subjects… seems like the first line of defense was left alive by the Kiroi no Senkō,"

At that point his entire world hazed out, leaving him in darkness. The next time he woke up he found himself in the hospital in Konoha. The picture of the girl's pure look of fear imprinted deeply on his retina.

* * *

Naruto awoke in a cold-sweat, his dreams were becoming more horrible as they continued. He told himself that surely the Yondaime never committed such acts as the ones he dreamt of. To him the Yondaime was a hero, someone who never killed the innocent under any circumstances. He was convinced that the dreams were just bad dreams of his with no base in reality.

He had since quite a while ago figured that what he saw must be something regarding the Yondaime Hokage, however he wasn't sure if it was the truth or not. The missions most shinobi did were kept secret, only for propaganda purposes did a single ninjas accomplishments became known to the public.

What Naruto not clearly understood was how he felt feelings in his dreams; had knowledge he didn't remember learning, like the appearance of the Tsuchikage. History was one of the subjects where he had slept through the lessons.

* * *

A/N: I know, long time, even a very long time since last. Sorry about that, but I have no excuse per say, just didn't feel up to writing anything. So some basic things, like Hana's dogs, I know that in cannon she's got her triplets, but well since this is AU and she's younger here and all that stuff, those dogs belong to someone else within the clan and she'll have to make do with having two dogs this time around.

I think this was yet another confusing chapter, but I'll try to be clearer in the future... even though I've told myself so several times it seems like it won't happen though. Being vague is too much fun to write.

Jiraiya have certainly been rather active with his writing here, seven volumes already, if I don't miss-recall he didn't have that amount published in cannon, and that was year wise two years later. :p

There will be a time skip between here and the next chapter, while training might be interesting and good for building the characters, I just don't feel like writing one or two more chapters of material that's there just to fill out stuff. And well, the main characters' characters right now aren't that interesting, because that won't be exactly how they'll be later on (duh. And I know it sound stupid) so I'll focus more on them next chapter which I hope will be more interesting, and perhaps contain some action at last! (That for once will be good?)

I hope I didn't miss something and removed all PHs and that stuff. If you see anything that seems out of place please PM me so I can correct it. This has been overhauled a lot of times, so some old relics might be forgotten somewhere which I didn't see even though I've gone through it a couple of times now. Nearly ended up giving the story an M rating for this chapter, went rather dark in 2 editions but it was entertaining, but I think I managed to keep it within the bounds here. :)

Hopefully the next time will be sooner, but until then have it good and happy new year.

Please leave a review as well, would be much appreciated ;)


	8. Ghosts of the past

The scarred Chūnin was anxiously rubbing his nose, careful to avoid the scar going across his nose. It was a reminder that sometimes he had to be more careful and that even people he knew could do unexpected things. For the last twenty months Konoha had been oddly quiet for the young man, the lack of his senpai was noticeable, his wallet was heavier than usual. Not having to pay for several bottles of sake from time of time made a lot of difference to the young man's salary.

Today was the jutsu mock exam at the academy, the genin hopefuls just a few weeks from graduation, and he would see if all of them had gotten hang on the things they were taught in the academy. Overall the class was very good off, it looked as if there wouldn't be any potential non-ninjas in the room even though some would repeat a year or two before becoming real ninja.

The fact was that most of his class consisted of the heirs of their respective clans. He had the heiress to the Hyūga clan and the heir to the Uchiha clan. There was also the three members of what was predicted to be the future InoShikaCho combo.

"So, we'll start off with…" before he could finish Iruka was interrupted as the last member of the class opened the door to the classroom. "How nice that you could join us Hatake-san, really you take after your father all too much."

"Well then Hatake-san, since you're up here I guess you can start with showing off the jutsus then," Iruka said pleasantly as he took up his clipboard.

* * *

"You've been training here for the last twenty months, and for the last year you've been completing missions for us as well. For that we commend you. While your stay here has been longer than the usual stay, others team having entered here after you and left before you, none of them have had the privilege to perform missions here. No doubt have the three of you grown exceptionally since you first arrived here, now I don't just mean how Naruto is actually taller than you girls now but I mean in terms of strength and mind," the members of the team standing before the captain snickered with the exception of one member who was pouting.

"Now, I believe we've been holding you here for far too long. Now I'm not only judging from the time spent here, but we've received a lot of mails from the Hokage urging us to speed up your training. Apparently the council is on his neck since the whereabouts of one of the heirs to one of the more prestigious clan is here with us. I'd love to see his face when he finds out you stayed here performing missions."

"Well, as fun as it is you doing a retrospect story Washi, just tell us what you need done and we'll do it. I can almost hear Naruto dreaming about ramen back in Konoha now," Chizuro said so that the captain would stop saying unnecessary stuff. "My team is good, and we know it."

"Okay, as you wish sempai. Your mission is simple, it's recon mission, this time we do have permission to search the area, so you won't need to sneak around and discreetly take any patrols from Taki, just show them the permit," Washi said as he handed Chizuro a piece of paper with the Taki Daimyo's seal.

"Now you guys probably know that a Chūnin selection exam started two weeks ago in Iwa. We had one team going there to attend it to show that we're willing to repair the relationship with Iwa since Hi no Kuni and Tsuchi no Kuni are currently discussing trade agreements; but the team never showed up. The folks back in Konoha haven't heard from them either, and it was three weeks ago that they should have arrived in Iwa. The Iwa border controls never saw them enter their country, but one of our own border patrols saw them in the vicinity of the Konoha-Taki border. Your mission will be to search from the point where they were last seen for any evidence of what happened to them," Washi pointed to the map where they would start searching.

"You have a week's time, after that your orders are to return to Konoha. You're dismissed,"

The four members of the team carefully left the underground outpost, making sure no-one saw them leave the area. It would take them a day to reach the point where the Konoha team was last spotted, meaning they had six days to search for traces of them.

"This seems easy enough, at last there's no beating around the bush and that stuff," Naruto said gleefully as they ran along the preferred path of the outposts inhabitants to reach the Konoha border.

"At last we can take a real bath and wash off the smell of the swamp, finally some perfumed soap, how I long to return to Konoha. I hate when we have to act covert, stinking like this is why I hate swamps," Chizuro said even more gleefully.

* * *

It was the sixth day of the mission, the team had been following what they believed to be the Konoha team's tracks, it had taken them two days when they had found some evidence of a team in the vicinity of the area where the other team last had been seen. No Konoha patrol team had any paths set up there for until another two weeks, and hadn't been there for five weeks. Neither were any Taki patrols scheduled to patrol anywhere in the vicinity according to their stolen patrol papers.

They were closing in on the Iwa border when Hana's dogs picked up the smell of decaying flesh. Following the scent the team reached a area with hills, covered in thick and long grass. The genin were just about to enter the field when Chizuro stopped them.

"What is it sensei? There's something just a hundred meters further, it might be the Konoha team." Hana said as she ordered her dogs to stop.

"If so they're already dead for sure," Chizuro said coldly as she stared out over the hills.

"What do you mean sensei?"

"Enter this field, and you'll be dead for sure. Have you ever heard of the battle taking place here?"

"Exactly where is 'here', sensei?"

"During the third war, close to the end, a large part of the forces on both sides were fighting over this area. Konoha and her allies were trying to push into Iwa territory, and Iwa was defending with all their might. The fight that would take place here would most likely decide the outcome of the war. The side with most ninja standing would be able to push inside the other country's borders. The field of rolling waves was the name of this place since the wind makes it truly look as rolling waves when it moves the grass."

"Guess how many returned from the battle which took place here,"

"Six-hundred ninjas," Naruto responded. The largest groups ever mobilized by Konoha to one battle during the third war had been a thousand ninjas, but that had been extreme.

"Two-hundred," Kurenai said, it would be a rather logical number if Konoha and Iwa both were giving it their best there was bound to be heavy casualties.

"None," Hana said grimly. "This is the hills of the dead isn't it sensei, where over eighteen thousand ninjas and soldiers simply disappeared?"

"Yes, that's what they are called in these days. It's said that sometimes one can still see the battle raging here. Since there were no survivors, it is not known how both sides' forces were eliminated but the fact that none returned for either side still stands as a fact. There's still a lot of traps in this area, and so far no team which have entered here has returned even after the battle is over."

"Well then, let's be that team then," Naruto said as he rushed in. Before Chizuro could stop him, he had entered the field. She rushed after him, trying to stop him, but just as she was about to reach him, he disappeared into thin air. A moment later she felt a hot liquid splash on her. Reaching up with her hand and wiping it off and looking at her hands she could see blood. Turning around she could see Hana and Kurenai a good hundred meters behind her, she should be where Hana's dog supposed something lay.

Looking down at the ground she nearly screamed when she saw the decomposing face of Ugan Kakouton staring up. From what she could tell his jugular had been cut.

"You fool, why did you enter this field? Now you've gotten one of my students involved in the ongoing battle on the other side. But how come you're lying around here, usually the corpses are never found around here."

* * *

He had just narrowly escaped losing his head as he ducked when he felt a tingling sensation flow over him. What he hadn't been prepared for though was the blade that now was in his side. He had to jump to the side as his attacked pushed for a killing blow.

Once he was able to stand up he gripped the handle of the wakizashi and janked it out. Looking around to find his attacked he found him to too far away, already process of attacking him again.

"Stop it, why are you attacking me. I haven't done anything," Naruto tried to reason with his attacker, but it proved futile as he had to dodge another swipe from the long blade held in the attacker's hand.

All Naruto was able to do was to dodge as his opponent left no opening or breathing space for him to use a powerful jutsu. He started to get frantic as he noticed that his own movements were slowing thanks to the blood loss since he was constantly moving, aggravating the wound.

"Fūton: Doryūheki!" the seal sequence was quickly managed by Naruto and the dirt rose up rapidly from the ground. To the attacker's surprise it was launched at him at an incredible speed; forcing him to dodge.

* * *

"We better…" Kurenai and Hana never got to hear what Chizuro was about to tell them as wind whipped up just in front of the Jōnin, a moment later they could see Chizuro leave the ground, a look of surprise on her face before she disappeared into the thin air. More than a day had passed since Naruto disappeared at the field.

* * *

Chizuro saw Naruto in front of her, partially covered in blood from the wound in his side as he was breathing heavily from extortion. She could feel another presence just to her left, reacting by taking up a kunai and shielding her neck felt like the right choice as she felt a blade impact her kunai. The blow had almost shattered the kunai, cracks spreading through the weapon.

Launching three rapid Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu she created a distance between the attacker and herself. From what she could tell it was a samurai, his clothes ragged and bloodied. His black hair was unruly and his grey eyes held a glint of madness within them. She could see the fading mark of the Hi no Kuni forces still on the left side of the man's robes.

"Stop it, we're not your enemy. We're from Hi no Kuni as well," Chizuro said as she had to use another kunai to parry the man's attacks. This time the weapon shattered under the blow, her words seemed to land upon deaf ears.

'_I have to buy some really high-quality kunai in the future it seems,'_ Chizuro noted as her supplies of the weapons were starting to run out. The swordsman lacked finesse, but the power he had behind his swings were humongous while he still managed to deal them in quick succession, forcing Chizuro on the defense. She realized that he had most likely been a part of the rear guard of the Konoha forces, if they were forced to retread he was to be one of the persons to delay the enemy's pursuit.

Naruto's vision was starting to blur as dizziness started to take over him. His movements were sluggish at best, so he could only watch as his sensei was pushed further and further back as her weapons were destroyed in a rapid pace.

She felt she had a good feeling for how the swordsman was fighting now. Instead of going for her kunai pouch she reached into the inside of her pants where she had hidden a twinset of wakizashi. Using the blade in her right hand to parry the large blade she followed up with her left blade which was dodged by the swordsman. She jumped and created a distance between herself and the swordsman. While she was in the air she started to go through a seal sequence to a water dragon, but before she finished it a bright beam shot against her originating from the blade held in the swordsman's hands.

Naruto could only watch in horror as he watched Chizuro sail through the air, a cascade of blood following in her wake.

* * *

It was two days after Naruto had disappeared and the two female genin of team Chizuro remained at the field where two of the team members had disappeared. Suddenly the smell of blood permeated through the air, moments later a bow of blood appeared from thin air splashing against the ground. Since Naruto's disappearance Hana had smelled the faint smell of blood, and both she and Kurenai had seen small amounts of blood occasionally appear at random points around the field. But never before had such a large amount appeared in one moment.

* * *

"If only I was stronger," Naruto whispered to himself as he felt his knees hit the ground while watching his mentor crash against the ground and starting to cough up blood as the swordsman started to close in on her.

* * *

_**Flashback**_

The entire team sat meditating when suddenly the room started to feel oppressing as a strong chakra started to flow within the room. The vileness in the chakra flowing there sent shivers of fear through Hana and Kurenai as they never had felt something alike to the feeling while Chizuro bore a grim face as adrenalin started to flow within her body; the only one who looked unaffected was Naruto.

'_Impossible, did the seal break?_' she prepared herself for the worst, opening her kunai pouch and gripping the handle of one of the sharp weapons. But soon the chakra died down and silence reigned for a moment.

"Sensei!" the excited voice belonging to Naruto yelled out. "I felt a lot stronger just now, I found like a switch in myself and when I turned it, it felt like I got a lot of more chakra."

"Sensei, that was Naruto who had that much chakra?" Kurenai asked her teacher as her heart started to calm down. "It wasn't normal,"

"I believe so," Chizuro said as she let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. "Perhaps it's time to tell the three of you something,"

"You three must know what the bijū are?"

"Yes, they're large beasts or demons made almost entirely of chakra, ranging from the one-tailed Tanuki to the nine-tailed Kyūbi no Yōko," Kurenai replied a little confused how that would have anything to do with the chakra Naruto had.

"Right, then did you guys know that those can be sealed?" Chizuro said as she looked at her three students seriously, they all shook their heads. "Well they can,"

"Excuse me sensei, but what does this have to do with Naruto having that chakra?"

"Everything Hana," Chizuro said as she exhaled deeply. "What I'll tell you in just a few moments must never be spoken about in public, doing so will result in the hardest possible punishment."

"Some bijū have been sealed up since quite a while ago, but most have so much power that they cannot be sealed into items, they are sealed into human beings. These humans usually receives some benefits from this, like advanced healing, access to certain affinities at a much higher level than should be possible or a vast amount of chakra. These people are known as Jincuriki," Chizuro paused to think over her wording, what she said next might very well mean the dissolution of her team.

"Exactly eleven years ago one such great beast attacked Konoha, it was the Kyūbi no Yōko who is the mightiest beast out there as far as we know. Konoha put up a valiant effort in defending the village, but jutsus proved to just be an annoyance to the beast. The Yondaime however had a secret technique that would stop the beast, but at the cost of his own life."

The three youths on the team all knew that, but Naruto picked up on a small detail in her wording.

"You said it would _stop_ the beast, didn't the Yondaime kill it?" Surprising the three, Chizuro started to laugh bitterly.

"If that would have been true, then what I'm going to say next wouldn't have to be said. Frankly then most of this mess would probably not be, you wouldn't be known as the hated prankster in Konoha Naruto, but now that is the case."

"The technique that killed the Yondaime wasn't a heroic ultimate jutsu that blew up anything close to it or the sort and that was why he didn't survive. It was a sealing technique, it wasn't advanced, but it wasn't simple either. It would take the soul anything, even the king of all bijū, but at the cost of the users life. Now the soul was far too powerful, it had to be sealed into something. The strongest vessels are humans, and especially newborn."

"So you're saying the Kyūbi was sealed within a baby that day?" Hana asked and received a nod from her teacher.

"These vessels are seen as weapons by most, some villages put bijū within one of their citizens just for that purpose. This was now such a case, this was the Yondaime Hokage's last resort, and he had to use it to save the village. For that he had to sacrifice two lives. His belief was that the carrier would be hailed as a hero, there was only one child born that day," the three genin noticed that tears were starting to accumulate at the edges of Chizuro's eyes. "Such a goddamn fool he was, there's no way that the Konoha whom are among the most distrusting people in the elemental nations would do such a thing," they heard her whisper almost as she started to sob.

Slowly the three genin were piecing together what Chizuro had said, reaching the same conclusion at the same time. "Naruto was that child," the two girls whispered mostly to themselves.

"So I'm nothing more than a demon?" Naruto asked.

"No! You're not a demon, there's difference, the demon is held imprisoned within you. You are the prison, he's just paying his rent by giving you power, like what you displayed minutes ago," she had been fearing it, but this had also been the most logical outcome.

"Without you, Konoha would be razed to the ground already. You are Naruto and not the Kyūbi who is your prisoner, I hope you understand that. I tell you this because I believe that you two girls should understand that he's not influenced by the demon sealed within him. You have been living with him for the last six months and should have that much trust for him. If you don't, then get out of here and never show yourself before me again,"

Chizuro was pleased when the two girls stayed, but she was surprised when Hana actually slapped her.

"So you mean that this is why he's been so badly treated in the village? He wasn't even aware of it himself until you just told him, that's cruel sensei!"

"Well, it's just..:"

"Nothing," Hana said vehemently as she crouched down by Naruto who was holding onto his knees as he was sobbing silently, it was the first time Chizuro saw him cry. He might have been a coward in the past, but he never cried. Chizuro decided that she would only agitate the genin by being there and decided to leave the room, hoping they would have calmed down to the next day.

_**Flashback end **_

* * *

Before Kurenai and Hana's eyes about thirty meters away orange-red chakra started to appear from the ground as the air started to feel oppressing. It was like tails of pure energy were reaching out from the middle. Just as the chakra was about to reach their position it all started to return to the middle, once it all had collected a powerful shockwave flew over the area, blowing up the dirt from the ground.

Once the dust cleared they could see Naruto rushing a man while wielding two swords. The swordsman was hard-pressed on the defense, his large sword slow to parry the fast blows dealt by Naruto.

The power coursing through him was simply amazing, his body felt as light as a feather as he wielded the two blades belonging to Chizuro with a surprising ease. His vision felt a lot sharper than usual, and he had noticed that the blade of his opponent was starting to suffer from the numerous attacks. He managed to get the swordsman to lock swords with his left blade and he attacked the flat side using his right blade, to his surprise the large sword was cut off just above the guard. With the lack of resistance against his left blade he drove the blade deep into the swordsman's chest just below his head.

The eyes of the swordsman took on a sudden clearness as he stared at Naruto. "Namikaze-sama, finally you have arrived. We've held off the Iwa forces and just a few of them remain, however they have managed to infiltrate our forces. Please, help the survivors, I'm lost," the swordsman started to cough blood before his body started to go limp.

Hana and Kurenai rushed towards their teammate and fallen teacher. Chizuro was bleeding profusely from a large wound in her side; Naruto was covered in blood but no wounds could be seen on him. The two girls managed to stop the bleeding and had her take a blood replenishment pill even though they had to force her to swallow it as she was unconscious.

The green and tranquil green hills of the field were now littered with weapons and the rapidly decaying bodies of Konoha and Iwa forces. While Hana and Kurenai was tending to Chizuro Naruto started to walk around the field in contemplation over the swordsman's words. The man seemed to think that the third war was still raging, and at the battle they were expecting reinforcements from Konoha. It was if they had been frozen in time, and the deads' bodies only to appear now and take the natural turn of decay. A few bodies were decaying at a much slower pace, while others just turned into dust within an instant.

When Naruto had walked a good five hundred meters away from his team he found some ninjas with a hitai-ate he never had seen before, there was a symbol of a note carved into the metal. Close by the rotting corpses he found three smaller bodies wearing Konoha hitai-ate. They were some of the few slowly decaying corpses, he would approximate the time of their deaths to have been three weeks earlier. He could still recognize the faces of the students, being his old classmates. They had all died holding onto their weapons, it looked like Hitsuga Mizuhiro had died holding a kunai which was buried deep within one of the ninja's from the unknown village.

It looked like she had been the only one to manage to kill their attackers, her teammates looked like they had died far earlier judging from their position, most likely the unknown ninja were planning on having their way with her as her pants were torn off, but something had stopped them besides the fact that one of their comrades had been struck down by her. Two of the other ninjas had stabbed her through her chest, but then something had cut their throats.

"Naruto, let's leave now. We've stabilized sensei but she's still out cold so we better get back to the village as soon as we can so she can get some proper medical treatment," Kurenai's voice was carried clearly through the war thorn hills.

Naruto was making his way over to his teammates when he noticed a group of bodies that looked like they weren't decaying. Cautiously he made his way over to the unmoving bodies in case they posed any danger he better be prepared. When they made no move Naruto checked for a pulse on the three persons laying there. Surprisingly they were alive, but unconscious. Two of them bore the Konoha hitai-ate while the third had a Kirigakure ANBU mask attached to her belt.

If his theory was right, then that meant they were remains of the forces that fought in the third war, meaning they had been allies back then. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," a series of distinct pops followed and six clones appeared beside Naruto. Quickly directing them to pick up the people with stretchers he had retrieved from one of his scrolls he made his way over to where Hana and Kurenai were waiting for him.

The two girls stared at Naruto with uncertainty when he was approaching them followed by the six clones carrying stretchers. At first they thought it to be a bad joke, but not even Naruto had that bad taste when it came to jokes.

"They'll drag us down, we need to make haste back to Konoha so sensei can get some proper treatment. Going back to Ten no Hi will do no good since both Konoka-senpai and Chisame-senpai are out on patrol missions and won't be back for some while. Just leave them here Naruto, they're of no concern for us," Hana said heatedly.

"I do agree with Hana, our priority is sensei. If we take them with us it'll take one additional day at least. We don't know if these persons will attack us even if they wear Konoha hitai-ate."

"People who don't obey orders are trash, people not caring for their comrades are even worse than trash. We can't leave them here, they're from Konoha. If need be, we can just keep them drugged so they're unconscious for the entire trip. I can go in advance with sensei on my back while you two take care of these three, the clones should last until we arrived in Konoha," Naruto's words were as law to the team though, if he wasn't swayed the first time, then he couldn't be swayed. And whoever drilled the taking care of other people of Konoha drill into his head had made a good job of it.

"Alright, but we'll be the ones going in advance along with sensei, you'll take care of the people you brought," Hana said defeated. "Kurenai, give him the sedatives,"

"Give them 2 centiliter of it if they start to show signs of waking up. It should keep them knocked out for twelve hours, so renew the dose every eleventh hour just to be sure," Kurenai instructed as she handed over the drugs and syringes to Naruto. "Guess we'll see you back in Konoha then Naruto, make sure to not keep us worried,"

Hana hefted Chizuro onto her back and said goodbye to Naruto. Had Hana's dogs been bigger they could have been riding them back to Konoha, cutting down the travelling time by a day. Now it would take them approximately four days to return to Konoha, usually it would take three days but with a injured person they had to travel slower.

Naruto turned towards his clones. He guessed it would take him five days to get back, during that time he had to figure out a way to keep the three persons in his care nourished and hydrated without having access to IV. The three didn't look malnourished and it was like the years hadn't taken their toll on them. The battle at the field took place fifteen years earlier, but the three still looked to be around sixteen years old. _'Just what was affecting this area, it's like it was a genjutsu, yet no genjutsu have the effect of freezing time. It seems like it was dispelled when I used the Kyūbi's chakra though, just like a genjutsu.'_

* * *

The entire team which had been under Chizuro's guidance stood before the Hokage. His face was grim as he scanned the three anxious shinobi. When they hadn't returned within the designated timeframe nor had they sent a message regarding a delay he had been worried that even they had fallen victim to whatever it was that had happened to team one.

"We've confirmed the identities of the three shinobi you recovered from the hills of the dead. Amazing as it is they seem to be three ninjas that were sent to that battle all those years ago. Chang Issei and Seki Aya from Konoha and the Kiri ANBU is as far as we can tell Shimokawa Dana," the Hokage said. "It seems like they've recovered from the shock of the truth. Shimokawa-san originates from Uzu no Kuni and joined the Kiri forces since they promised to take up protection of the country. However her country is now destroyed, a casualty of the last war. For now you're some of the few privy to this information, so please refrain from spreading it. We are making some preparations to make sure their existence isn't known to the general populace."

"A more pressing matter is that Chizuro is unconscious at the moment. It saddens me to say this, but I doubt that she'll wake up anytime soon. While I know you won't like it, I'm going to assign you a new Jōnin-sensei until the time Chizuro wakes up since you're a valuable team to Konoha. Kakashi-kun, please come in."

The three stared at the man who was supposed to be Chizuro's replacement. It was the man they had seen Chizuro conversing with on several times. He had his face buried within an orange book that the three recognized from Washi's office. Though Naruto had more experience with the book since for the last two years those had mysteriously appeared in his room, he now had a quite large collection of unread books.

"I suppose you can take them from here Kakashi-kun," the Hokage said. "I trust the three of you to perform just as good under his leadership; Naruto, Kurenai and Hana."

"Ma, seems like we'll team up after all Uzumaki-san," Kakashi said to the genin whom he had failed almost two years earlier. Kakashi still hadn't accepted a team, and now had the longest running record of a Jōnin failing teams in the secondary exams to become a genin in Konoha. Much of it though was thanks to the high standards he set with the bell test. Only a few used that test, and even then not for a long time.

"Well then, shall we head to someplace to eat and have a chat before we do begin with a small test?" Kakashi proposed, "It's my treat, just need to pick up something on the way." The three genin slowly followed the elder shinobi, while they were unhappy about it, they would accept the change of leadership.

Inside his office the Sandaime heaved a heavy sigh as the door closed shut. Looking over the reports he held in his hands he felt depressed, from what the doctors could tell from two weeks observation of Chizuro she had suffered a relapse and he would have to contact an expert to deal with her comatose state. The three shinobi brought back by Naruto was another hassle, the two Konoha shinobi had since long been declared dead, while the Kiri ninja had lost what tied her to Kiri. While it did prove him an opportunity, it would also give him a headache, considering the integration of outside shinobi was considerable. The only light spot was the last file in his hands, it was one of the few documents he hoped to sign soon.

"Hokage-sama, the list from the academy have arrived regarding the most likely examinees and best setup have arrived, also you'll need to sign these." His secretary dumped a pile of papers on his desk before briskly walking out of the haggard looking man's office.

* * *

"You guys just wait here, I'll be back soon," Kakashi told the three genin as they had come to a stop, in the blink of an eye he had entered the building.

"Yo, onee-chan! What are you doing here?" Hana's little brother was approaching the three genin. While she had been home for the last two weeks he had barely seen her since she left for the hospital or to train everyday and didn't return until the evening and went directly to the bed. She hadn't shared a single meal together with her family even though it was almost two years since they had last seen her.

"We're waiting for our Jōnin who had something to pick up here," Hana responded with a slight smile. "So what are you up to Kiba?"

"Nothing much, we just got a break from Iruka-sensei so I'm just going to annoy Miki I think," Kiba said as he sported a mischievous grin.

"Who's that?" Hana asked, she knew of one girl but she believed that couldn't be the same person. But having been away for quite some time it was certainly credible that it could be the same person.

"I'm Miki!" Kiba was blown away as a girl kicked him in the side, "Hatake Miki actually. It's a pleasure to meet you again, Hana-san, Kurenai-san and Naruto-san,"

"We've met before?" Naruto questioned.

"Of course, you three were the ones who saved me from that damn bastard Matsugawa," the three looked like they had been struck with a sledgehammer. The small and timid Miki they had met back then was nothing like the confident looking girl standing before them. The three noted she had grown exceptionally much, her silver-white hair reached to the small of her back and her eyes were no longer red, instead they were grey.

"Ah, there you are, I was wondering where you went," Kakashi's voice interrupted any further conversation between the four persons. "Well then, now that we've got my daughter, let's head for lunch, as promised it's my treat." The three genin followed father and daughter in stunned silence. The two actually did look alike, especially when wearing similar clothes except Miki's lack of a mask and hitai-ate. Hana and Kurenai noted that Naruto actually wore something similar as well. 'sensei's sense of fashion dropped after she bought the first clothes for Naruto,' the two duly noted.

The five arrived at Ichiraku ramen, much to Naruto's delight. For the last two weeks the team had only been eating at the hospital as every moment when they weren't training was spent there. When the owned and his daughter saw Naruto it was hard to tell who was happiest to see the other part.

"So you've been training at _Ten no Hi_ for the last twenty months, how strong do you think you guys are compared to ordinary genin?"

"We were told that once a team leaves Ten no Hi they are believed to be able to become Chūnin, but we choose to remain there for further training, so we should probably be somewhere in mid Chūnin level," Kurenai stated with a slight confidence. Her two teammates actively agreed with her with a lot more confidence.

Kakashi simply nodded as he watched Miki eat her second bowl of ramen. Kakashi had since long finished his ramen, to the three genins' amazement, without showing his face to them. _'They have no clue about their report card it seems, they are technically at the level that's set as a recommendation for Jōnin rank. To say it is impressive what Chizuro managed to push them to would be an understatement. A team that she judged to be defunct and requested to be disbanded is so much further along the line compared to the ones that graduated at the same time as Kurenai and Hana.'_

Kakashi was pleasantly surprised when Naruto announced he was finished after eating five bowls. If his memory served him correct Chizuro had been complaining about the one time she had treated him to ramen, having to pay for over twenty bowls. The five returned to the academy, where Miki was dropped off for afternoon lessons, before they made their way to training field seven.

"So, here I have some bells, what I want you to do is…"

"Take a bell from you and we pass, however you only have two bells meaning one of us must be the sacrificial lamb. Been there, done that. I volunteer to be the sacrificial lamb," Naruto said as he sat down crossing his arms.

"Actually, what I want you to do is take the bells from me and then attach them to a number of targets in specific places. The first target will be the Hokage, you are to tie the bell around his beard," the three genin were gulping hard, the Hokage would be a hard target, but Naruto was formulating a plan that might just work out.

"The second and third targets will be Inuzuka Kiba and Uchiha Sasuke, tie a number of them as ribbons in their hair, feel free to use glue if you wish," Hana was grinning from ear to ear, a chance to embarrass her brother was always appreciated.

"The fourth and final target will be a Jōnin named Maito Gai, he's probably in training field two along with his team. If you can manage to give his team some ribbons as well I will have a bonus for you.

* * *

The elderly man was scribbling furiously on his notepad when a bird landed on his shoulder, he was about to shake it away when he noticed the note tied to its leg. Quickly unfolding it he found a familiar handwriting.

_We need your expertise again, it seems like the seal collapsed again and she's out cold with no recovery in sight. This will most likely be the last time it'll work, after that we will have to give up. I would also like to have you investigate another matter. Recently one of our teams discovered a hitai-ate not previously seen, carrying the symbol of a music note. It seems like they assaulted and killed our envoy to the Chūnin exams in Iwa._

_- Sarutobi_

The man sighed as he burned the letter and closed up his notepad. A quick seal sequence and the words "Kuchiyose no Jutsu," and he was off.

* * *

A/N: Next up, the team undertakes the unusual bell test set forth by Kakashi.

Sorry about the ugly flashback announcement-thingie in the middle, but this I felt I had to make obvious with those means, sadly. A little notice as well, I made a teensy thing wrong in the last chapter that's purely cosmetic, the price of Icha Icha is one zero too much, not any impact story wise though really, just the price is way over the top.

Even though many names are mentioned, most of them doesn't matter, if they're important I'll make that clear.

And finally, sorry for the delay, I actually had this done the day after chapter 7 was published, but since then I've been going back and forth whether to publish this or not due to the Bijū revealing part, ultimately I obviously decided to publish this after all. I don't want to brush aside the trust issue that it ought to give, and it will come to play from time to time, but for now it's "ignored". There's some interesting things in store for the future, and I hope you'll be there to see them.

Trivia section:

So, the times at which exams are held are as follows in this story. In the months of June and December the Chūnin selection exams are held as a rule of thumb.

The ninja academy in Konoha holds their exams just following the last Chūnin exams, meaning sometime during January and June.

Fūton: Doryūheki This is a combination of wind technique and the earthbased wall. It collects earth from the ground and using wind to push it forward. The wall is not close to as compact as the original, having the stopping power of only slowing down kunai and shuriken significantly if it is standing still. It's purpose is more of a escape, and it does push away anything it hits since it is relatively compact in motion.


	9. The teacher returns

The secretary paid no mind to the two female genin standing outside the Hokage's office while their teammate was inside. Why the Hokage would agree to meet with a lowly genin who housed the Kyūbi was beyond her. Usually only jōnin were granted a private audience with the Hokage, genin met him along with their entire team. When the third member of the team walked outside the office with a triumphant grin she thought nothing of it as the three genin quickly left the tower. It was only when she walked inside to give the Hokage the bundle of papers that had arrived during the Hokage's meeting with the genin she let out a scream as she saw the Hokage sprawled over his desk, a small amount of blood pooled around his head.

Just as she was about to rush outside and get help she found one of the Hokage's personal ANBU guards standing in her way, "The Hokage!" she frantically said.

"It's nothing, you needn't be frightened. This is just one of Uzumaki-san's pranks, we'll have it dealt with swiftly," the ANBU said crisply as he led the scarred woman back into the lobby outside the office, "Just continue as you were previously,"

Once the door to the office was closed shut the ANBU let out a laugh that he had been holding ever since he saw the Hokage fall victim under Uzumaki Naruto's technique. Who would have thought that a genin would manage to fell the Hokage of Konohagakure, if it ever became public then Konoha's public image would be shattered for a foreseeable future.

As the Hokage woke up the ANBU couldn't help but notice the small bell tied with lace around the aging Hokage's beard, another laugh was soon heard from within the office before abruptly being silenced.

* * *

He listened in boredom as Iruka continued with the lecture regarding the creation of Konoha. He was just about to fall asleep when he felt something heavy impacting against his head.

"What the hell?" his abrupt awakening elicited snickering from the classroom, looking down to the front he could see his teacher standing there, his history book shining with its absence, looking down to the floor he could see the book laying there.

"Is my lecture boring you Kiba?" the brown haired chūnin questioned. The brownhaired boy cursed his luck as he could see the black haired boy openly sleeping just two seats away hadn't been targeted, yet he got chosen.

"No sensei, I was merely… resting my eyes,"

"Really now, then what was the name of the Shodaime Hokage's clan?"

"Senju,"

"What was the…" the chūnin never got farther as several objects were thrown throughout the room, soon exploding into smoke. In the confusion that ensued Kiba felt someone giving him a good slug to the stomach, making his already grey shrouded world into a world of stars and darkness.

It took Iruka approximately a minute to manage to get control of the situation, but by then the assaulters had managed to escape. As he did a headcount he saw that everyone was present. When he left to report to the office so that they could contact ANBU to investigate he was stopped by a tall jōnin standing just outside the door.

"That was merely some students that were conducting a test for me, so there's no need to get ANBU on this, beside the point they're already aware of this,"

"Understood Hatake-san," the scarred chūnin said, somewhat miffed since he hadn't been informed of the test. As he returned to the classroom he was met with thunderous laughter.

"You've got cute little bells with pink ribbons in your hair Sasuke-chan," Kiba said somewhat mockingly, having trouble to form words under his laughter.

"Kiba, so do you," Iruka said as he looked towards Kiba. Instantly Kiba's own laughing ceased as he moved his hand towards his hair, indeed he could feel bells there along with something sticky. He would never hear the end of this once his sister saw him, and the roaring laughter behind him told him Miki would taunt him for it as well for a foreseeable future.

"Someone's gonna pay!" the three genin guilty for the deed was roaring with laughter just outside the classroom's windows as the watched Iruka detain the enraged academy student.

"My… best test… ever," Hana said between labored laughs as the three slowly moved away from the academy, unaware of the person watching them.

"It's so damn easy, would have been harder if we had to fight Kakashi to a stalemate," Naruto said gleefully as the trio started to move towards training field two.

It took them twenty minutes to reach the outskirts of the training field. Observing the area they could see three genin there, supervised by a jōnin clad in a green spandex suit. One of the boys was dressed in similar attire and even had the same bowl cut as the jōnin had. The second genin was a Hyūga judging from his eyes, he was currently occupied by the third member of the team, dodging the brunette girl's deadly projectiles with graceful movements even as the came from several directions.

"So, two of them are sparring while the jōnin teaches his look alike some taijutsu. How are we going to proceed from this?" Kurenai questioned. Already had she dismissed the idea of taking them by surprise. While they could confuse a chūnin and achieve their objective she doubted they would fool a jōnin as easily.

While Kurenai was still planning she saw Naruto create a Kage Bunshin and before she managed to stop him he had sent the clone to greet the team.

"Ow, why'd you do that for," Naruto hissed when he felt Kurenai's elbow impact on his ribs.

"Why did you send a clone without our consent for?" Kurenai countered.

"Because I have an idea how to proceed from here," Naruto said, surprising his two companions. Usually Kurenai was the one who planned their course of action when it concerned attack tactics.

They watched in surprise as the jōnin made a great movement. Moments later they heard something that resembled "flames of youth" as the jōnin took something from the clone. In a matter of mere seconds they watched as the jōnin's perfect bowl cut was 'destroyed' as several bells with ribbons were tied into his hair by the clone while the Hyūga along with the female on the team simple held the palms of their hands against their faces.

"What'd he do?" Hana questioned as she turned to Naruto who was sporting a triumphant grin.

"Never underestimate the information Chizuro gives you when she's hammered," Similar to the two sane members of Gai's team both Kurenai and Hana felt compelled to facepalm. Naruto was the only one who would pay attention to someone's drunken slur, even though it this time had given him valuable information.

"Well as much as I was hoping for some entertainment you guys left me sorely disappointed, you didn't get the genin to wear them as well," the silent appearance of Kakashi sent the three reeling in three different directions, Kurenai preparing to use a jutsu while Hana and Naruto stood prepared with their kunai drawn, wisps of chakra appearing on Naruto's palm.

"You've accomplished the first part I suppose, now for the next one. That team over there consists of the latest batch of genin's star student, along with the second best kunoichi. Their third member is was the worst student in the class, however don't let that deceive you. His position was only decided due to his inability to use ninjutsu and genjutsu and under the tutelage of Maito Gai he's become a fearsome force actually, his taijutsu is quite something for a genin. Now what I want to here is to beat them in a team match. Also since you failed to give the genin ribbons, no bonus for you guys,"

As the three watched him walk away towards the eccentric jōnin they quickly huddled.

"Provided Hatake-sensei manages to get this Gai guy to agree to a match, how should we deal with them? Judging from what we saw then the girl is good at range while her two companions are taijutsu heavy," Hana questioned before she whistled in a tune that only she and Naruto could manage to hear.

"Hana, you'll be the vanguard, Naruto your mission is to support Hana and take them out when possible with ninjutsu or taijutsu if you must while I try to set up genjutsu," as Kakashi approached two rather large dogs appeared from the thick foliage, advancing towards Hana at high speed.

"So, Gai agreed to the little match, so come along."

"Roger that Hatake-san," the three replied in unison as they followed the jōnin, "There's even an extra level of challenge to this, I'll be joining with Gai-san's team while he joins you guys for this. It's a good opportunity for him to test his own team's strength, with the upcoming exams and all,"

"Team Gai, meet my team,"

"Yūhi Kurenai,"

"Inuzuka Hana, and these guys are my companions Yami and Hikari," the brunette said as she pointed to the two large dogs.

"Uzumaki Naruto, your next Hokage," the blond member of Kakashi's team said confidently before he felt a hard slap towards the back of his head courtesy of Hana.

"Such flames of youth!" Maito Gai said as he did what Kakashi dubbed the nice guy pose in Naruto's direction. "I'm Maito Gai, jōnin-sensei of this team,"

"Rock Lee, if I do not win this duel then I'll runt thirty laps around Konoha on my hands!" the jōnin look-alike proclaimed.

"Hyūga Neji," his stance was firm and his voice devoid of any emotions.

"Natsu Tenten, a pleasure to meet you," the girl of the team said as she smiled towards the three genin she would be facing.

"Now then, how about we start this thing off," Kakashi said as the two jōnin switched sides.

"Start," Gai declared once the two teams stood twenty meters away from each other.

* * *

At the edge of the training field the aging Sandaime stood, watching as the two teams tested their strengths against each other. Lee and Neji had quickly tried to close the gap, but when Naruto unleashed several low rank fire jutsus they were stopped while Hana moved in along with her dogs in an attempt to take out Neji as he posed the largest threat for the support Kurenai's genjutsu would proved.

"Engaging me with in close quarter won't give you anything," Neji declared as he started to use what proved to be vastly superior taijutsu against the dog user. Sarutobi saw the girl take three hits while blocking six other, meaning she had taken nine hits in total already, rendering her left arm effectively unusable.

Sarutobi watched Naruto go through the seal sequence for Katon: karyū endan, the fire dragon met a swift end however when Kakashi decided to intervene, his water dragon utterly crushing Naruto's dragon.

XxXxX

Kurenai could only sigh as she watched Naruto's excitement take over his style of fighting, leaving her and Hana to deal with the genin since he started to exchange jutsu blows with Kakashi, Gai had supposedly decided his help wasn't needed so far.

"Fūton: Daitoppa," the blow of wind was blocked by an earthwall which quickly fell as Kakashi unleashed an offensive jutsu of his own. "Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu,"

"Suiton: Suijinheki," Kakashi was surprised with just how good the boy had become, so far he had shown himself to be rather proficient with three different elements. Soon he found that he didn't have time to mull over that as he saw Naruto approaching him at a rapid pace, his right hand held behind him as he watched wisps of chakra starting to form and circulate rapidly within the palm of his hands.

His first fear was nullified when Naruto swung his arm, releasing a small ball of wind blades that had formed within his hands. Kakashi narrowly avoided the jutsu, but still felt his shirt slowly being soaked in his own blood as small wounds had appeared over his left arm.

"Stop it, this is starting to get out of hand now," Kakashi said as he saw Naruto rapidly flashing through a number of seals. As all the genin stopped with what they were doing Kakashi looked up to see that Kurenai had managed to disable tenten with a genjutsu while Hana along with her dogs barely managed to hold back Lee and Neji, though her left arm was now unusable for a while and was limping slightly with her right leg. Gai had yet to participate, instead the green clad jōnin stood contemplating.

* * *

"I share your sentiment Kakashi," the Hokage said as he reviewed the report in his hands, "This 'test' was probably too easy so they just rode the highroad through it, doing the bare minimum. Naruto stepped slightly out of line when you engaged him in a ninjutsu match, leaving his teammates vulnerable. Considering the position however I suppose that is overlookable. He's always been eager when it's ninjutsu concerned haven't he?"

"So they'll be made chūnin then?"

"Officially, no they will not. However their wages will be raised to chūnin level and the missions they'll be allowed to go on will be chūnin level as well. I have some plans for them in the coming months before they're made official chūnins," Hiruzen explained.

"So I am not to inform them of this then I suppose, just say we'll start doing missions from tomorrow,"

"Yes, that would be for the best,"

"By your leave then, Hokage-sama," Kakashi said before he disappeared in a swirl of leafs.

* * *

The aging man hated the paper work involved whenever he visited Konoha, one of the reasons why he seldom visited the village. Nine years had passed since he last visited the village where he was born.

"Welcome back, Jiraiya-sama," one of the chūnin guarding the gate said once he had handed in the forms.

"Thanks," the elderly man said as he walked through the gate. He had barely set a single foot inside the village before he had an ANBU two steps away.

"Hokage-sama told me to guide you to him immediately," the ANBU explained, "So no detours to the hot-springs today Jiraiya-sama," The two traveled fast over the rooftops, reaching the Hokage tower in mere minutes.

Once there the ANBU guided Jiraiya through the maze that was the basement of the tower, ultimately leading him to an isolated room far beneath the tower. In the middle of the room lay a young attractive woman with long strawberry blonde hair. Jiraiya couldn't help but let out a whistle of delight, immediately he felt the female ANBU's glare directed at him.

"Finding the person you raised as your own daughter attractive now are you Jiraiya-kun?" hadn't Jiraiya been used to his teacher's sudden appearances already he would surely have jumped away and readied himself for combat.

"I'd be lying if I said otherwise, but it's hard to see that she was the sniveling brat I taught years ago, besides back then she didn't have a body like that!" Jiraiya proclaimed with a lecherous grin.

"She's developed quite a lot since you dropped her off here nine years ago. It's sad that a seal is what keeps her mind intact,"

"Yes, if only I could find a way so it wasn't needed," Jiraiya said as he started to inspect the layers of seals that were visible on Chizuro's back once he had swiped some of his blood over it. It was the secondary seal that had broken, unleashing her memories that had to be suppressed unless they would break the primary seal in a matter of minutes since it depended on her mind, in turn of the secondary seals destruction the backup seal that had her going unconscious had activated so she wouldn't cause any harm.

"Do you think you can fix it?" the aging Hokage asked as he watched Jiraiya follow the designs while he occasionally looked into a beaten and weathered notebook.

"Yeah, I think I've found a solution," Jiraiya said confidently before he bit his thumb and started to smear blood in an intricate design that his sensei didn't recognize. He stood there in silence for two hours, watching as his student smeared blood around almost the entire room in intricate designs that he only understood half of.

With the sound of popping joints Jiraiya rose up and surveyed his work, if all his theories were correct this was the last time he would be messing with the seals on Chizuro's back. Charging chakra to his hands he forcefully slammed them down onto Chizuro's back, eliciting a gasp before she started to scream in agony as the seal started to shrink.

Hiruzen's pipe almost fell out of his mouth as he watched the seals slowly unraveling on Chizuro's back, as the seal Jiraiya just had done wove into the old seals they disappeared at a similar pace, ultimately leaving nothing.

"You… managed to find a solution to Orochimaru's old seal?" Hiruzen questioned hesitantly as he watched a panting Jiraiya stand up.

"Yeah, took me quite some research, but finally I got her out of his damn grasp fully, sadly it isn't usable against the curse seal in it's current form, I'll have to conduct some more research before that," Jiraiya said as his head started to spin, '_the sealing took more than I expected,'_ he absently noted before the floor rushed towards him and his world turned dark.

* * *

When he woke he did so to a familiar scent. The white roof he could see overhead confirming his suspicions of being in the hospital. Looking to his left he could see another bed where Chizuro laid, sleeping peacefully.

_He watched her writhe in pain as the seals were dissolving on her back. Suddenly she turned around and started to grind her back against the floor, blood slowly starting to seep out from the wounds she were creating on her back. He had to take a firm grasp on her shoulders to stop her from further hurting herself. In puzzlement he watched as her hair started to take a lighter hue as the final part of the seal that reached to her front over her left shoulder dissolved. Staring up at him were two marbled blue-green eyes filled with gratefulness and pain, before with a final yell her whole body stopped moving and her eyes closed._

The peace was disturbed however as the door was thrown open as a blond boy came hurdling through the door, two other genin along with Minato's old student close behind trying to get hold of him. The movement to sit up caused Jiraiya to wince, his whole body felt like it had aged prematurely.

"Sensei!" Jiraiya heard the blond say as he rushed to the sleeping Chizuro's bedside. Something about the blond runt reminded him of Minato, and then it hit him like a lightning bolt. Quickly but covertly reaching for his red west he managed to find the letter he was looking for.

Opening the letter dated almost two years earlier a single sentence was scribbled down that had puzzled his mind to no end. _'The heir lives,'_ signed by Chizuro. Jiraiya was ready to curse his teacher over keeping the fact a secret, the resemblance was uncanny.

"Oi gaki, people are actually resting here," the white haired sannin exclaimed once he had been fed up with the boy's incessant babbling.

"Who are you? Why is a old, probably perverted, man in the same room as sensei!" Naruto said as he pointed accusingly at Jiraiya.

"I'll have you know that I'm no pervert!" Jiraiya said, wounded that he was called a pervert. "I'm Mount Myobokuzan's sennin, also known as the gama-sennin, Jiraiya!"

"I know you've probably done something with sensei!" the blond almost yelled.

"Nah, wouldn't be able to when I've raised the brat,"

Three heads instantly whipped up in attention and their eyes almost bore holes through the sannin in scrutiny before the brown-haired girl turned to Minato's old student.

"Kakashi-sensei, does he speak the truth?" the blond questioned, knowing that Kakashi had known Chizuro for some while at least.

"Yeah, it's true. In fact it was Jiraiya-sama who brought Chizuro to the village and raised her here before he left nine years ago," the three genin were staring at the grey haired man in disbelief. They found it hard to swallow that Chizuro had been raised by the man who made such a ridiculous introduction.

"Why are you guys here anyways?" Jiraiya questioned as silence was the only occupant of the room's air for quite a while.

"We heard that sensei had been cured and went to check on her," the red eyed girl explained.

"You must be Yūhi Kurenai then, while the brunette is Inuzuka Hana. The blond abusive runt is Uzumaki Naruto, right?" Jiraiya asked and received nods of affirmation, "Well don't bother, I doubt she's going to wake up soon."

"Not true, the old man said she woke up just this morning!" Naruto said.

"Jiraiya-sama, it's been six weeks since you came to Konoha, Chizuro has recuperated quite well and this morning she was awake for a shorter period of time, you yourself haven't been much better I'm afraid, the sealing drained quite a lot from you," Kakashi whispered as he leaned in so that only Jiraiya could hear him.

"Indeed. I would suggest you do not use a jutsu like that again Jiraiya-kun, even though it did what it was supposed you were fatally near meeting your own end as a result, chakra exhaustion on your level takes a lot to bring forth," Sarutobi Hiruzen's appearance surprised the genin team.

"Well, since Chizuro seems to do a good recovery I'll be reassigning you guys again, Kakashi I have a new mission for you," the three genin were happy to return to Chizuro's lead, even though it most likely would be a while until they would be doing missions along with her again. On the other hand Kakashi had an inkling about what the Hokage wanted him for, reading the scroll he was handed confirmed his suspicions before he disappeared in a swirl of leafs, waving goodbye to his short-term students.

"Jiraiya, until Chizuro is fully serviceable I'd like to ask you to perform missions with her team if possible and train them,"

"I…" Jiraiya hesitated, but taking another look at the blond he had knew he had to, only if to confirm or disprove the notion of the boy being Minato and Kushina's kid, "Sure, why not."

Sarutobi was surprised that Jiraiya so readily agreed to teach the three, he'd expected heavy resistance from his old student. The opposition came from another person though.

"He looks weak!" Naruto exclaimed, sending Jiraiya from his bed as he attempted to teach Naruto who was weak, however the sheets toppled his attempt and instead sent the white haired sannin sprawling on the floor.

"He's one of the strongest ninja Konoha has Naruto, it's a privilege to be trained under that man, not only did he raise and train Chizuro, he also trained the Yondaime Hokage," Hiruzen explained as Naruto's eyes turned as wide as saucers.

"He trained sensei AND Yondaime?" Hana and Kurenai couldn't help but giggle at Naruto, he looked like a goldfish straight from the water.

"Please take care of us, Jiraiya-sama," Kurenai said as she bowed her head before the elder shinobi. _'Proper girl, just like Chizuro wrote,'_

"Why can't you ever be quiet Naruto," the group heard a weak voice question from behind them, laying there and staring into their backs was Chizuro looking exhausted.

"Sensei!" the three genin exclaimed in unison as they threw themselves at the blonde woman.

"Oph, easy there, I'm not feeling so well just yet," she said as she felt the pressure form their hugs.

"You'll probably need to rest for up to a month Chizuro, you'll continue to be paid your ordinary wages though," Hiruzen said as he saw the smile on her face as her students continued to barrage her with questions if she wanted anything to feel better or if something still hurt.

"Thanks… Hokage… sama," Chizuro said hestitantly, for a moment the Sandaime noticed a change in her demeanor, she almost seemed cold towards him, but waved it off as a simple illusion

"Well then, you take care of yourselves, I'll have you signed out of here immediately so that you can start train team Chizuro Jiraiya," the Hokage said as he left the room.

"So you're teaching again sensei?" Chizuro asked the man standing by her bed.

"Yeah, thought I'd give it a shot for a short while, just to see some stuff," Jiraiya said as his eyes quickly darted to Naruto which only Chizuro noticed and gave a slight nod understanding

"I assure you it won't disappoint you," Chizuro said confidently, her team grinning eagerly at being trained by one of the best Konoha had and whom had trained the Yondaime, while Jiraiya smiled for an entirely different reason.

"Alright you brats, you'll be trained under me so let's go now, training field six," Jiraiya said as he ushered the team out of the room.

"So the legacy survived then," Jiraiya said once Chizuro and he was alone in the room.

"Yeah, Sarutobi kept it a secret from everyone, until now he and I were the only ones aware," Chizuro said as she gingerly started to move from the bed. Her whole body aching from not being used for quite a while, how Jiraiya managed to move painlessly was a wonder from her vantage point. She watched Jiraiya disappear through the door and it was firmly shut, "There was probably a third though, but he was killed because that he knew it," she muttered silently.

* * *

Kakashi glanced at his clock, about time to show up at the academy, he'd let his future genin wait three hours now meaning they were between confused and pissed right now.

"Yo, team seven?" he questioned as his head poked through the door. Thinking back to the profile folder he was given earlier he knew that the pink haired girl who screamed at him that he was late was Haruno Sakura, the silent boy with a trench coat and sunglasses was Aburame Shino and the boy who angrily stared at him yet tried to feign disinterest was Uchiha Sasuke.

"Let's head to the roof," Kakashi said, ignoring the girl's incessant nagging.

"So, let's hear you give me an introduction, your likes and dislikes, hobbies and dream, you know that kind of stuff, silent sunglass boy, you start,"

"My name is Aburame Shino, I like bugs and silence, my dislikes are loud environments and tofu balls my hobby is entomology and my dream is to become one of the strongest shinobi," Sakura simply stared at the boy, she'd never heard him speak that much before.

"Next, pinkie," Kakashi said and watched the girl indignantly huff before she started.

"My name is Haruno Sakura, my likes are…" her eyes trailed towards Sasuke, "my dislikes are spicy food, and my hobbies are…" once again her eyes trailed towards Sasuke, "My dream for the future…" Kakashi only sighed as he watched her eyes once again trail the Uchiha heir. He'd never understood why so many youths were engrossed with that particular Uchiha, okay, they were a prestigious clan but in the Uchiha massacre he wasn't the lone survivor thanks to a camp which most of the youths had been to.

"Okay, Brooder, your turn then,"

"Uchiha Sasuke, there's a lot a dislike while there's nothing I like, rather than a dream I have an ambition, to kill a certain man and bring the Uchiha clan back to its former glory,"

Kakashi only sighed, this would take a lot of work, but he knew that even if he failed them the council would probably push for having them entered as a team anyways. It wouldn't do to have the Uchiha heir to fail as a genin. _'Out of all nine Uchiha's left, why do I have to teach him?'_ Kakashi wondered.

* * *

A/N: Sorry about the massive delay, I've had a lot of my plate recently, my laptop got stolen and it sadly had a lot of reference materials on it along with  
an earlier version of the chapter. Sadly the test didn't come out as fantastic as I hoped it would, but I couldn't come up with anything better, at least it's a new chapter.


	10. Back to Taki

Shino watched as his two teammates jumped away in different directions, both intent on getting a bell for themselves.

"You're the one that's going to come at me directly?" Kakashi questioned as he turned a page in his orange book. He hadn't pegged Shino as the one who would remain and attack him. On his team he had judged that the Uchiha would probably be the first to attack.

"It would only be foolish to attempt to attack a jōnin on my own," Shino said not moving from his spot, instead he sat down, "Your skill far outstrips mine, my only chance would be if the team acted as a team and not lone individuals," Kakashi's eyebrows rose, twice now he'd gotten genin capable of seeing the true meaning behind the test.

Just as Kakashi was about to respond anticipated first attack occurred just from the person he had predicted would start. Using Kawarimi Kakashi switched himself with a log; Sasuke had given away his position. Kakashi thought it fit to return the favor, and moments later he flung a handful of kunai at the genin, not one missing its mark and… explode in a splash of water as the raven-haired boy was soaked to the bone by special made icy water kunai.

'_Really, the one who made these is a genius!'_ Kakashi thought as he watched Sasuke shiver from the cold water. He quickly cast a genjutsu at Sakura, whom had been located when she screamed out in horror just before Sasuke was hit by the "kunai", making her see Sasuke slowly stumbling close to her cover, covered in kunai, shuriken and his own blood. To his surprise the girl fainted by the genjutsu.

"I suppose this team is weaker than I thought," Kakashi said, hoping to taunt Shino into participating, no such luck as the quiet boy simply sat there like he had from the start.

The clearing remained silent for twenty minutes, as far as Kakashi could tell Sakura had recovered and was hiding twenty meters to his right; Sasuke was somewhere down by the river while Shino remained in place by the training posts. Then suddenly the quiet boy sprung into action, moments later Kakashi noted that the two others were also closing in on his position.

The jōnin had to dodge a barrage of kunai from his right first, soon followed by another from the river, a third never came, instead he felt like his chakra was continuously drained and looking down to his feet he found the answer as he had kikaichū walking up his legs.

"Katon: Gōkakyu no Jutsu!" the large ball of fire just barely singed him as he jumped away, barely had he landed before he had to parry a blow directed at his kidneys. The three genin were trying to overwhelm him, and in the end Kakashi had to admit defeat as he felt them walk away, Sakura and Sasuke happily holding bells dangling in their hands.

"Very well…" Kakashi said, seeing that even though Shino lacked a bell he still seemed relaxed and as far as Kakashi could tell, happy. "You all pass, meet me at the bridge close to the Hokage tower tomorrow at eight for our first true meeting as team seven,"

The three genin were about to walk away, "Shino, please wait a little," the boy obeyed the jōnin and remained in the area, waiting for him to speak his mind.

"I suppose you sent your bugs with a message regarding how to deal with this test to your teammates," Kakashi said. "It's almost like you had information beforehand on how this test was conducted,"

"I assure you that I hade no prior information regarding this test," Shino said, if he was affronted by being accused for cheating then he didn't show it, but then again he was a ninja, cheating was by no means wrong for them.

"Then how come you so easily saw through the test? Most students would compete from the start, trying to obtain a bell for themselves rather than like you offer to not get the bell just so you could co-operate."

"It was something a genin just as old as me told me a few days ago when we were battling with water kunai, his team participated in the match and thoroughly thrashed us even though two of them were beaten out from the game relatively early. 'people who abandon the mission is trash, but people who abandon their friends are worse than trash,' was his response as to why he sacrificed himself to cover his two teammates when he himself had a perfect opportunity to take out five others," Shino explained. By the onsen area in Konoha a blond boy sneezed heavily, luckily no-one heard him.

"I see…" Kakashi said, "Well that was all I was wondering about, you may go home now; I'm sure your family is looking forward to your return,"

* * *

"Oi, ero-sennin," Naruto yelled towards his temporary teacher. Said teacher growled as the kid once again had managed to find him.

"Why do you always interrupt my research gaki?" the white haired man questioned.

"You're just peeping like the pervert you are," Naruto said matter-of-factly.

"For the last time, I'm not a pervert, I'm a…"

"…Super pervert, you've said that several times already. Now come back and help us with the jutsu," Naruto said with a sigh. Now was not the time to be peeping, '_It's much better at a later time of the day, about when the training finishes. Then there's the most women there since they want to refresh after training.'_

"Alright, alright," Jiraiya said as he saw that the women in the onsen had left already. Another day where he didn't get any work done.

Returning to the scene Jiraiya found that his three students had made little progress with Doton: Yomi Numa, the one with the far best progress was Kurenai who had the best chakra control out of the three. Her swamp covered about thirty square meters, while Hana managed ten, Naruto's jutsu covered about a hundred square meters, but unlike his teammates his was only ankle deep while theirs was a depth Jiraiya didn't want to test.

"They're quite the handful aren't they sensei?" Jiraiya looked back to see Chizuro slowly walking onto the training field aided by crutches and Miki close on her heels. She still looked very exhausted, the unsealing seemed to have drained a lot of her strength, coupled with her being unconscious for quite a while before even that it summed up to a physically weakened state of body.

"Tell me about it, especially Naruto," Jiraiya said after he had given Hana a pointer for how to control the placement of the jutsu.

"Well excuse me Ero-sennin, but not even the ra…" Naruto said before stopping dead at the glare Chizuro gave him from behind Jiraiya, "Raiton Kage bunshin was this hard!" he finished. Jiraiya's eyebrow rose, he was pretty sure that wasn't what the blond had intended to say but he'd play along for now; he was sure he would find out eventually.

"Naruto, you push too much chakra in the technique in the wrong way, what you're after is depth and not only size. There's two layers to this technique, you can't just put as much chakra as you can in the beginning but you need to continuously pump chakra into the technique so that the depth is there as well, otherwise you'll just create something that might make your opponents feet smell," Jiraiya explained, for once showing patience in the vicinity of Naruto.

Naruto flashed through the seals, "Doton: Yomi Numa," moments later a swamp started to appear, quickly enveloping the forest outside the training field. At first Jiraiya thought it to be another failure, but to his delight he saw the trees starting to disappear. Naruto had managed to go from not being able to use it to a making it functional, although he still had trouble making the jutsu affect a smaller area.

"Yes! You see that ero-sennin," Naruto said proudly.

"Jiraiya-sama," the sudden appearance of a chūnin interrupted the training, "Hokage-sama requests your and your team's presence," the chūnin said before disappearing through the foliage again.

"Well, you heard the chūnin, the old man wants to see us," Jiraiya said, he had planned to see just how much of an area that Kurenai and Hana could affect with their jutsu; but that would have to wait.

Bidding farewell to Chizuro the team used shunshin as they traveled towards the Hokage tower. Entering the tower the front desk secretary informed them that the Hokage was within the mission room. Entering the room they found to their surprise that it was empty of personnel save the Hokage himself. Usually the room was manned with several chūnin whom helped with the administrative duties.

"Ah, Jiraiya-kun, I've got an important mission for you and your team," Hiruzen said once the door was shut closed. The team remained silent, inclining him to continue, "In eight days there's a meeting in Taki no kuni between the five great nation's daimyos, I want you four to attend that as our daimyo's escort. Only a team of genin with their teacher is allowed to attend the meeting as guards."

"Do you accept the mission?" Hiruzen asked. The three genin looked pensive while Jiraiya was judging their reaction.

"It's an A-rank mission," Hiruzen said hesitantly, instantaneously the three genin looked hardly at the Hokage, trying to find any deceit. A-rank mission while they still were genin… it sounded too good to be true.

"Are you pulling our leg old man?" Naruto asked. A shake of the head settled it, "Of course we're doing it then! A-rank!"

"Well then, if you all agree then prepare to leave the village today, you'll go to Tengai to meet up with the Royal guard and the Daimyo himself, they expect you in a two days time, but an earlier arrival would be appreciated. All but Jiraiya are dismissed," Hiruzen watched the three genin leave the room after giving him a salute.

"What else is it that makes the need for this mission to be secret?" Jiraiya asked as the door was firmly shut by Naruto.

"You're to make a detour after the mission has been concluded, we've had reports of some operations within Ta no Kuni see what your sources can say about that. There's also been a decline in the amount of trade we have with Nami no Kuni for no known reason, investigate that as well, officially it'll be a training trip. If you can clear it up then do so,"

"Understood sensei, is there something else?"

"No, that would be all for now, if I receive any forthcoming information I'll have it sent to you," Jiraiya nodded before he left the office. Standing outside was his team along with the chūnin whom were now waiting to be called inside to resume their duties. Jiraiya found his youngest student engaged in a staring contest with the four chūnin, a good clobbering to the head from Hana once she saw Jiraiya ended it however.

"So, you guys ready to set out?" Jiraiya asked and in response the three genin withdrew two scrolls each from their leg pockets. _'Ah, the wonder that is Fūinjutsu, what would my life be like without it,'_ just considering the amount of supplies he carried with him had him quickly shaking his head, it was depressing just how much he would have been forced to carry hadn't he used storing seals for his equipment. Years later Jiraiya would still claim that the storing seals was his greatest accomplishment when it came to teaching team Chizuro.

"Then let's go," Jiraiya said before the team set off by the rooftops.

* * *

"Daimyo-sama," Jiraiya said as he bowed in respect before the leader of Hi no Kuni along with his team.

"I'm Jiraiya of the sannin, these are my three students, Inuzuka Hana, Yūhi Kurenai and Na-…" Jiraiya halted himself from saying the one thing he wanted to scream out, "Uzumaki Naruto. It's our privilege to escort you to the meeting,"

"What a pleasant surprise, I wasn't aware that you were teaching once again Jiraiya-dono, it will be a pleasure to know that someone like you will be protecting me during the meeting," the Daimyo said as he rose from his chair, "Well, since you arrived earlier then expected I'll have to accommodate you rooms within the palace,"

* * *

"Uzumaki-sama, this will be your lodging for the night," Never before had Naruto been treated with such respect. He felt almost giddy at being called sama by the servant.

"Thanks," Naruto said as the servant bowed his head before leaving him to his own devices. The room he had been given was spacious and held everything he could have wanted, and the bed was much larger than what he had at home and as he tested it he almost felt himself sinking into the bed. He almost fell asleep when he was attacked by something soft that hit him hard. Looking up he could see Hana standing above him with a wide grin, holding a pillow at the ready.

"You ain't sleeping tonight Naruto,"

"Wuzzat?" Naruto's gargling response was met with another smack to the head from behind, whirling around Naruto saw Kurenai there with a plush pillow.

"Kage bunshin!" suddenly seven Naruto's stood there, each holding a pillow. Soon the fight started to escalate as the three genin continued to use jutsus without destructive power in addition to pummeling onto each other with pillows.

* * *

When Jiraiya walked into Naruto's room to wake the boy up using a minor water jutsu he was pleasantly surprised to see his blond student along with his other two students laying in a pile on the boy's bed, everything a total mess.

"You guys finally did the deed eh, and a three-some at that!" Jiraiya exclaimed loudly, the three genin were wide awake in moments, sporting blushes and defiantly denying anything of the sort happening.

Jiraiya ignored them; "Youth is wonderful, I still remember…" further exploration on the subject was stopped when a barrage of pillows hit him across the face in quick succession.

"There wasn't anything like that Ero-sennin, you can go and have your fantasies elsewere,"

"Hard to believe you when your clothes barely are fitted," Jiraiya said, pointing to Naruto's state of half undress and then to Hana and Kurenai whose clothing was moved from it's proper positions.

"I assure you Jiraiya-sama that nothing of the sort happened," Kurenai said with a cold glare directed at the white haired man; for a moment he actually felt a chill travel down his spine.

"I don't believe you, but I'll drop it for now," Jiraiya said before dropping the carefree personality, "We set out in thirty minutes so get ready,"

Once the team reached the small caravan that they would be traveling with they discovered that they weren't the only ones protecting the Daimyo. Standing there was about two hundred samurai along with sixteen other ninjas, four ANBU and twelve unmasked ninja. Instead of wearing hitai-ate with the Konoha mark the twelve unmasked ninja had a sash with the mark of Hi no Kuni instead.

"Who are they Jiraiya-sama?" Hana asked the white haired sannin.

"They're the ANBU that the Hokage has assigned to the Daimyo's protection and the others are the Shugonin Jūnishi also meant to protect the Daimyo, however unlike the ANBU they aren't commanded by the Hokage but the Daimyo himself," Jiraiya explained as they approached the ANBU.

"Hello ANBU-san, looks like we'll be companions during this trip," Jiraiya said once they stood beside the group of ANBU. He was pleased to see that the whole ANBU team was female; he vowed to see what they looked like under those masks and armor.

"Yes, it's a pleasure to serve alongside someone with your reputation Jiraiya-sama. And from what I hear the team you have under your command was previously under Yukino Chizuro's and Hatake Kakashi's guidance," the captain of the team said.

'_Ah right, both Chizuro and Kakashi have quite the reputation in the ANBU,'_ Jiraiya had forgotten about that fact. Neither had he reviewed the mission record for the team he had under his guidance.

"You can call me Natsumi," said the one wearing the captain robes. She had long blonde hair reaching down to the small of her back and through the mask it looked like she had auburn eyes. Strapped to her back was two ninjato.

"Fuyuki," she had pale blue hair reaching to her shoulder blades and supposedly violet eyes. It looked like she wore no armaments at all; Jiraiya supposed she was the genjutsu artist of the team.

"Haruka," she looked to be the youngest member of the team, Jiraiya judged her age to be three years younger than her peers, placing her around nineteen. She had slightly longer hair than Fuyuki in a light green color, her eyes color matching the hair perfectly.

"I'm Aki, a pleasure to meet you" the last member of the ANBU team had foregone the standard ANBU attire and instead wore something that barely could be called clothing and had Jiraiya ogling, a short white skirt and something that resembled a sports bra was all that she wore. She had long black hair reaching just past the small of her back and charcoal eyes. Along with the creamy white skin that she had Jiraiya really looked forward to an opportunity to have a closer look on her appearance behind the mask.

"E…" Jiraiya's hand quickly clasped onto the blond genin's mouth, knowing just what he was about to say.

"DO NOT use that name here, refer to me only as sennin if you must, agree and I'll pay for your next five visits to Ichiraku," Jiraiya whispered in Naruto's ear, seeing Naruto's doubtful expression however he felt compelled to add another incentive as to why he shouldn't say the usual name he had for the sannin, "I'll teach you my most prized jutsu as well!"

Naruto only thought for a moment before he nodded. Five meals at Ichiraku and a jutsu for not using the words Ero-sennin until the mission was over; a fair deal according to Naruto.

Soon the convoy was off, slowly making its way towards Taki. Naruto found the pace to be painstakingly slow to say the least; he was used to the pace his team set out at which was very close to what jōnin were capable of, the weakest link being Kurenai who didn't have the same physical prowess like her two teammates had. But she had improved vastly since when they started, she had been much slower than Naruto and Hana initially was, but she had during the training trip nearly managed to catch up to her teammates. When she was going at full speed her two teammates were using approximately ninety percent of their capacity while in the past her speed had only taken them to sixty percent at best.

"Sensei, how long will it take to reach Taki?" Jiraiya was pleased that Naruto managed to hold his end of the bargain, _'now to make it last past this mission…'_

"Four days at this pace," Jiraiya responded. He now had three genin staring at him in disbelief, "I know you guys would managed it in a day's time if you wanted, two at most, but these others aren't ninja so they can't run as fast as us, especially the samurai whom wear heavy armor as well,"

"They're capable of traveling at that pace Jiraiya-sama?" the question asked by Fuyuki held a little disbelief at the notion that genin were able to travel that fast.

"Indeed they can, these guys can set an impossible pace to be genin, then again they've been genin for almost two and a half year now," Jiraiya said.

"How many times have they taken the chūnin exam so far?" Haruka asked, normal for a team with that much experience was two or three times.

"They haven't taken any exams so far," surprisingly it was the ANBU captain who spoke, "They've been training outside the village up till recently and have been unable to be nominated and attend any chūnin exam. The next one where Konoha ninja can participate in isn't until in four months time,"

"You seem to know quite a lot about our team Natsumi-san," Kurenai said.

"Of course, you had senpai as your teacher from the start, and I believe she still is, just that she's recovering presently,"

"Chizuro-sensei was your senpai?" Naruto asked with wonder in his eyes.

"Yes, she was my squadleader in ANBU until she quit a few years ago,"

"Sensei was in ANBU?"

"Yes, she quit ANBU when the Uchiha massacre occurred. I think that the fact that one of her our old teammates was the one responsible for the death of the majority of the Uchiha clan hit her very hard," Natsumi explained, her voice forlorn.

"So that's why she left ANBU, I was wondering about that when my network informed me about that five years ago," Jiraiya said thoughtfully as he scratched his chin.

"We've arrived at the camp for the night. You four can rest peacefully, your official takeover of the protection of the Daimyo takes place once we reach Takigakure; until then it's our job." Fuyuki informed them as she walked back to the small group that had been walking in the back of the caravan. If the team was concerned about that Taki had been their primary operation theater and had some reputation there they didn't show it.

* * *

"Hatake-san!" Umino Iruka glared at the girl that just loudly had protested against another D-rank mission, "you need to accumulate more D-ranks before you're cleared to do C-rank missions, currently your team has seven D-ranks, meaning you got another eight to go before you're at the minimum amount, and an additional fifteen should be done before you should be given C-rank missions,"

"Iruka-kun, no need to be so harsh, I'm sure she just wants some fun. Don't you have any fun missions do give them…" Chizuro snapped the bundle of papers form the chūnin's hands, just grinning when he verbally voiced his displeasure as she just shuffled through the papers and in the process dropping the neatly stacked and marked missions.

Hiruzen just watched in amusement, after all he wasn't the one who had to do the paperwork with reassigning the missions to a certain team.

"Aha!" the injured jōnin said triumphantly, "This one's perfect, demolishing a house. I know my team loved that one,"

"Chizuro-san, that one has been reserved for Hatake Kakashi's team," Iruka said once he reviewed the paper she was about to give the team.

"He'll have to suit himself for not being here on time, he'll just have to take Tora instead,"

"So, do you accept the mission?" Chizuro asked as she held the scroll just out of reach Iruka.

"We'll take the mission Chizuro-san," the jōnin sensei of team eight said after she had been given a nod from the Hokage.

"Finally a good mission!" Kiba exclaimed as the team walked out.

"That's an odd bunch for a team," Chizuro said once the door was closed shut.

"What do you mean Chizuro-san?"

"Well, the jōnin sensei is a Uchiha who haven't activated her sharingan yet, the boisterous Inuzuka Kiba, the quiet Hyūga Hinata and then there's Hatake Miki who haven't got a background in the shinobi arts until she started the academy here in Konoha. I'd have thought Miki would be placed with Kakashi instead of the Aburame boy,"

"Well, that's probably due to the relation between father and daughter," Iruka reasoned, "It would have been an eyesore to have it like that."

* * *

Hana could sense the tense air once her team walked into the room where all the Daimyos of the great five countries were seated with the exception of the fire Daimyo.

"Shijimi-dono, it is a pleasure to see you," a man who wore robes emblazed with the emblem of Kaze no Kuni said.

"Likewise Saerenji-dono," Shijimi replied before giving his respect to the Daimyos of Tsuchi no Kuni, Mizu no Kuni and Kaminari no Kuni.

It was with a sudden abruptness when the jōnin from Iwa reacted just as Naruto stepped into the room, being the last of the group to enter the room. In a moments notice the man held the point of his kunai against Naruto's throat, Jiraiya holding a kunai of his own against the Iwa jōnin's throat.

"Release your kunai,_ jōnin_," Jiraiya spat out, his voice lacking any compassion. The five country leaders just stared in alarm at the quickly declining atmosphere within the room. No longer was the air tense from the importance of the meeting and those assembled there, rather bloodlust emitted by both the jōnin and Jiraya.

"Honestly you can just kill that guy and be done with it… or wait, let me do it," a kunai hit Naruto square in his temple, a spurt of blood sailing through the air before he hit the floor with a thud, a moment later poofing out of existence. Jumping down from the ceiling was the real Naruto who had used Kawarimi no jutsu with a clone he created without the usage of handseals.

"Return to your position _jōnin _before you make another mistake, this time I will not spill your blood, but pull another stunt like that and I will not hesitate to kill you," Jiraiya said as he pulled away his

"I'm sorry about that, please continue with your meeting," Jiraiya apologized as he slipped back towards the wall behind Shijimi along with his team. Soon the five Daimyo did just as Jiraiya had said, writing it off as one of the quirks of the ninjas.

"Impressive reaction ability for a genin," the jōnin of the Kiri team said as she approached the Konoha team, a smile adorning her face.

"He's quite good at what he knows; a genius of hard work as some would call it back home," Jiraiya responded.

"Where's my manners, my name is Terumī Mei, jōnin-sensei of that team," she said indicating to the genin standing behind the daimyo clad in robes emblazed with Mizu no Kuni's symbol.

"Jiraiya, the gama-sennin. These are my students, Uzumaki Naruto, Inuzuka Hana and Yūhi Kurenai," Jiraiya said introducing his team to the woman. He noted that she was very attractive with long russet-red hair reaching to her ankles and framing her face perfectly even though it covered the right side of her face and jade green eyes.

"Your genin seem very experienced. Mine's just a few months since they graduated,"

"They've got about two years of experience," Jiraiya responded.

"Shouldn't they be chūnin already then, they certainly seem capable of attaining the rank," Mei asked, her pleasant smile working like magic on Jiraiya as he felt his tongue looser than it should be. Officially Kiri and Konoha weren't enemies, but they weren't friends either.

"Well, they've been unable to even attempt to take the exam since they've been training for the two years or so outside the village," Jiraiya explained, "otherwise they would beat any competition easily,"

"You Konoha ninjas are nothing compared to us in Kumo though," one of the genin from the Kumo team had approached the team, listening in.

"What'd you say?!" Naruto asked in bewilderment; no-one insulted Konoha's ninja force in front of him unpunished.

"I'm simply saying that we're way better than you guys ever will be, if we ever meet in a match then know it will be me, Shuzen Heirii that stands victorious,"

'_The nerve of that kid!'_ Naruto thought as he eyed the girl, she looked to be maybe three years younger than himself with vibrant red hair and hazel-green eyes.

"I assure you kid that these genin aren't easy to handle," Jiraiya said before Naruto did something stupid, stepping between the two just as an added safety. How would they be able survive the weeklong conference if Naruto managed to gain the ire of two teams within ten minutes of stepping into the room. Already he was developing a migraine, and his one cure was far off since he had left the scroll containing his emergency sake in his room.

* * *

Omake: Training fields

Naruto felt exhausted, he had just tested some of the explosive seals he recently had produced after a throughout physical workout. They had produced a larger blast than he had expected and he had to use several jutsus to protect himself from being within the blast radius. Looking around the area he saw that he probably had expanded training field six by at least an acre by blowing trees clear off the ground.

"Man, that was fun," Naruto said as he laid there, the sun's last rays stroking his skin. As he felt himself regain his breath he rose up and walked home to have some well deserved sleep.

Naruto returned to training field six the day after, this time intent on training with a fūton jutsu he had received from Jiraiya. Opening up the scroll Naruto quickly read the scroll once again, just to make sure he didn't mess up the hand seals. He quickly tried the sequence without putting any chakra into it, _'shouldn't be too hard.'_

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!" seven clones of Naruto popped into existence, "All right, let's do this. The eight Naruto's walked over to the edge of the field, _'didn't I make a "clearing" out of this area yesterday?_' not putting that much thought into it Naruto proceeded to test the jutsu, it fizzled. Several more attempts at it, yet only one managed to do something with the jutsu, a light breeze that simply rustled the leafs on the trees in front of them.

Naruto started to grow increasingly frustrated with the lack of progress, ultimately he choose to throw control to the wind, opting for power as he had already been at it for five hours without progress. "Daikamaitachi no Jutsu!" Suddenly Naruto felt the wind around him starting to pick up and a thunderous roar raged around him, moments later it became silent but Naruto could still see the dust flying about, then it was like an explosion as Naruto was sent backwards by suddenly appearing winds.

Cuts started to appear over his body and in his mind he received the knowledge from his clones as they were dissolved. Once the wind had died down a still very dizzy Naruto rose up to see approximately three acres leveled to the ground.

"Maybe I put too much chakra into that one…" Naruto said sheepishly and put his hand behind his head even though no-one was present to tell him how stupid he was.

"Gee, you think?" Naruto heard someone say from behind him. Standing there was Jiraiya with a grin. "It's only supposed to cause that much destruction when you use a medium for it, but I suppose your affinity is rather strong."

"By the way Ero-sennin, how come the training grounds are almost in the same condition, last night I left it in a state where about an acre was leveled, now the trees were back there somehow,"

"Village secret Naruto, can't tell," Jiraiya said, in fact he could tell the boy, after all it was only security rank C on it but he just didn't feel like explaining to him. The boy stared at the sannin who was unmoving, after five minutes he gave up on prying the secret from Jiraiya.

"You need to refine your control more Naruto, more basics! I thought Chizuro had drilled that through your head already,"

"She has, it's just that the jutsu was a pain to do,"

"Of course it was! Uou started out with practically nothing. You need to get the wind moving before you can use the jutsu, and then it should be in only one direction, not in every direction like yours, even though you did manage to get the brunt of the attack go forward,"

"I know Ero-sennin,"

"Well, I'm off for more research brat,"

"Avoid the Ichinose onsen, sensei, Hana and Kurenai is there," Naruto said, his voice barely above a whisper, "The Izumi onsen should be safe though,"

Jiraiya let out a perverted giggle, he couldn't have asked for a finer student, from time to time the pervert hater façade was dropped and gave Jiraiya some handy tips, but it was only done when Naruto was sure the two were alone. Whenever Naruto adviced the sannin where to go, respectively not go Jiraiya had avoided a beating, the first time he had doubted the genin though, and back then it ended with him being beaten to a near pulp by Chizuro even though she was weakened from the unsealing, something Jiraiya after that event claimed was a façade.

"Thanks kid," Jiraiya said as he jumped towards the onsen area.

Naruto sat there, watching the destruction his one successful jutsu wrecked. Would be a lot of work if he cleaned it up. Being tired the boy decided to head for Ichiraku to get something to eat before relaxing for the rest of the evening.

Once he lay in his bed Naruto found that he wasn't able to sleep, the fact that every time he remembered he had totaled an area of the forests within Konoha a forested area just like the one he destroyed the day before would be there was bugging him. Looking at his alarm clock he found it to be one o'clock, silently he left his room and made way towards training field six. Once there he noticed that the trees were gone, in their place was bare ground. He was just about to jump down there when suddenly he saw roots quickly appearing on the soil before suddenly a tree rose up from the ground, soon followed by many more. In a matter of minutes the area looked just like it did before Naruto leveled it.

"I see you!" Naruto screamed when he saw someone move out of the approximate middle of the area with shunshin, soon Naruto was on his heels, slowly gaining on the unknown ninja. Eventually Naruto caught up to the man whom he realized was an ANBU with a white mask vaguely resembling a cat with black and red markings.

"So you're the one who makes the trees appear, how do you do that? Is there a special seal for it,"

"Yes, I restore the training areas," the ANBU replied tersely, slowly inching away. Just as Naruto opened his mouth to ask another question the ANBU threw something on the ground that elicited a white flash, temporarily blinding Naruto. Once the genin had regained his vision the ANBU was gone.

"Damn, I want to know how to do that as well," Naruto muttered as he dejectedly started the trek home since the ANBU hadn't left a trace when he left.

* * *

Trivia:

Shugonin Jūnishi: Twelve Guardian Ninja

Councils: In this story I have three different Councils;

The council of fire which decides everything regarding the fire country. Consisting of the Daimyo, five city leaders, the ANBU commander, an appointed Jōnin, the Hokage, three elders from Konoha, the general of konoha's samurai army.

The Konoha Council consisting of the Hokage, the village elders, the leaders of the prominent ninja clans and the chairman of the civilian council.

Lastly there's the Konoha civilian council that decides all the matters that doesn't require the aid of shinobi like the civilian economy.

A/N: I suddenly felt like writing an omake that is related to the story, yet don't really fits in somewhere in the main story as it's not story driven. Naruto is indeed a closet pervert (he fears retribution from his teammates), Chizuro succeeded with "tainting" the boy, however not in time for the bet.

And man did I work fast on this one, the words just came flowing. Hope you enjoyed this piece, next time conclusion of the conference and the beginning of the true mission. :)  
As always, please leave a review.


	11. Enter Nami no Kuni

**Flashback**

"Hokage-sama!" the excited voice of the head physician of Konoha's hospital could be heard. He was a jubilant man in his late forties, slightly graying black hair kept in a neat fashion and a pair of glasses lying lightly upon his nose.

"What is it Kamine-kun?" the wizened old man asked, just hours earlier the Kyūbi no Yōko had attacked the village and the Yondaime Hokage had sacrificed his life to kill the beast and seal it within his infant son, a secret the Sandaime had vowed to make sure no-one else knew.

"You won't believe me, but I've found a dna match to the Uzumaki boy," the Hokage's visage straightened ever so slightly, not enough for Kamine to notice it, but Chizuro whom had spent countless hours with the Hokage recognized that the man was ready to strike at a moments notice. She crept further back behind the corner, just her left eye beyond the corner so that she could still observe what happened. She'd known that something was going on when the Yondaime had taken her to the tower and told her to remain there.

"Does anyone else know whom he was related to?"

"No, so far I'm the only one aware. At least the boy won't have to end up in the orphanage, get a caretaker for him…" only gurgling sounds came forth for less than a second before Kamine fell silent.

Panting Chizuro threw herself back around the corner, she'd just watched as the hokage killed Kamine with a kunai through the throat. Though fear still gripped her heart she forced herself to peer around the corner, there she watched as the Hokage took the sealed report and ignited it with a small katon jutsu, eliminating any evidence. Never before had she been so afraid of the man she called hokage-sama. She started to lightly run away, back to the room where the

Yondaime had told her to stay.

Just as she reached the room and held her hand over the handle she felt a chill go down her spine, "Going somewhere Chizuro-chan?" the Hokage's sweet voice was like a poison she reasoned, his sweet words could turn into death in a moment.

"I'm just going to bed Hokage-sama," the girl hesitantly said as she turned around to face the man, she saw that he still had a fleck of blood on his left cheek.

"Sorry that you had to see that Chizuro-chan, but it's a secret that no-one can know of, not even you am I afraid even though you only know that someone found out the young Uzumaki's heritage," As he said this the Hokage flashed through a quick seal sequence, a moment later her world turned black.

**Flashback end**

* * *

Chizuro awoke with a start, that jutsu was the same as she had used on Naruto and Kurenai she screamed at herself. As she tried to go back to sleep she found herself unable to, instead her mind continued to race. That memory had been sealed by the Sandaime, why had it been released, was it an effect of the fūin jutsu that Jiraiya used? It wasn't the first night that she had gotten a memory that the Sandaime had sealed back, she was amazed at just how much delicate information that had been sealed. There wasn't a doubt why he hadn't sealed her memory of figuring out Naruto's heritage once he was a genin, most likely he had sealed so much that the chances of a backlash was too high and she had been shaped into such a shinobi that he could trust.

* * *

"Alright gaki, this is the jutsu you've been waiting to learn!" Jiraiya announced as he turned around to face Naruto. For once the two had managed to get some training time during the unexpectantly busy week while the two female members of the team was busy browsing the shopping districts of Takigakure.

"It's a jutsu used by among other the Yondaime Hokage," for some reason Jiraiya saw that Naruto's face fell on that, he had expected Naruto to be jubilant regarding that fact, "Tōton Jutsu!" what better way than to demonstrate the awesomeness of the technique.

Naruto watched in amazement as Jiraiya almost entirely phased out of existence, only the contours vaguely visible. Hadn't he known where the sannin was before he doubted he'd be able to spot him before he walked into the man.

"That is so… awesome, teach me!"

"Okay, just do it with me here. Ram, monkey, ox and boar…" Naruto followed the long sequence reguired for the jutsu and watched as Jiraiya once again disappered from view, yet he himself didn't feel himself phase out.

"Sensei, why isn't anything happening?" Naruto asked.

"Are you kidding, you managed to get it right on the first try gaki, now you just need to memorize the forty seals and voila, good to use," Jiraiya said, "Just remember not to use it for too long, it can drain quite the amount of chakra,"

"But I can still see myself," Naruto wailed, though he did feel a slight tug on his chakra supplies.

"Well, it would be stupid not to be able to see exactly where you place your limbs, now wouldn't it?" Jiraiya retorted, "Despite popular belief of you and your team I'm not so stupid as to make a genjutsu-ninjutsu combination that fools oneself as well," Naruto suppressed a laugh at that.

Quickly suppressing any use of the chakra coils Naruto felt the tug on his chakra disappear. He flashed through the seal sequence again with more speed and the tug on his chakra could be felt again before he closed the coils for a moment. He proceeded to repeat the procedure, every time shortening the time it took him to go through the seal sequence.

"You know…" Jiraiya said, seemingly to thin air; confusing Naruto as Jiraiya was turned towards the opposite direction where he stood. It took him a moment of stillness before Naruto also detected the presence of a foreign chakra source.

With a soft thud their spectator landed at the edge of the forest, having noticed that she'd been found out.

"Shuzen-san," Jiraiya acknowledged. He had let his network find out about the teams that they were in the company of at the meeting, and among the genin the girl stood out with her impressive record, not as impressive as his own genins' record though. She came from a no-name clan when it came to ninja lineage, however their political influence in Kaminari no kuni was impressive. She however was the discarded child, the only daughter of the family head and as such she'd been thrown away to be a kunoichi as he had plenty of male heirs to take over the family. Jiraiya supposed her way of revenge was to become a successful kunoichi and proving that she was more powerful than her brothers.

"What brings you here?" Jiraiya questioned as he walked over to her.

"Nothing, I'm merely observing," she responded, her face remaining impassive.

Jiraiya was impressed with the girl, most genin shook by merely being in his presence if they weren't from Konoha. Yet this girl who wasn't even ten years old defiantly stared at him.

"Is it really wise to turn your back to your student like that, the Iwa team didn't seem to take a liking to him," Heirii said dispassionately.

"He'll be fine," Jiraiya responded as he waved his hand in a flamboyant manner. A moment later the sound of steel clashing against steel could be heard and Heirii could see that the Iwa jōnin whom had been in the area had chosen the moment to strike against him, while Naruto was engaging the three genin. Before she had a chance to move a fist impacted with her stomach, sending her rolling along the ground, away from the fighting area.

"So you finally decided to come out from hiding, _jōnin_," Jiraiya spit out as he parried another blow from the jōnin, Morioka Sanosuke. A mere genin during the third war and one of few survivors Namikaze Minato left.

"You and that look-alike, we'll take you out," in the corner of his eye Jiraiya could see that four Iwa ANBU had appeared, perhaps this would go out of proportion, good thing he had knocked out the girl.

* * *

"Kurenai, what do you think the two of them are up to?" Hana asked before taking a bite from the cake she just bought. While Taki wasn't known for being the best ninja, they did have an exquisite cuisine of desserts.

"Well, they're probably doing something Naruto-ish and Jiraiya-ish," Kurenai responded, meaning Naruto was blowing something to pieces while Jiraiya peeked at women.

Idly the pair watched the Konoha ANBU team rush off, erratic conversation being held between the members.

"So, what are those four off to in such a hurry?" Hana idly wondered before she took another bite from the cake.

"Dunno, something about 'Jiraiya-sama' being attacked," Kurenai responded dispassionately. It took a few moments before the words sunk in but then the two genin jumped from their seats, quickly leaving a few ryō in tip before taking off from the café; trying to catch up to the ANBU while Hana's dogs lead them on the trail.

* * *

Heirii slowly felt her sense of awareness was returning, now the world only spun very slowly. The sannin had managed to get a really good punch in that had knocked her out for quite some time judging from the appearance of the small glade. Holes were littering the area and trees were overturned.

"Rasengan!" She watched as an Iwa ANBU came hurtling close to her position, landing with a sickening crunch against a tree. The white haired sannin didn't even spare a glimpse at the man he'd just sent to his death as he was forced to parry the attack of another ANBU.

"Katon:Gōryūka no Jutsu!" Naruto's large fire dragon was stopped by an earth wall and he was soon forced to dodge a hail of shuriken sent through the just dissipating flames.

"Katon: Karyū endan!" this time Naruto's technique was splendidly put out by a large soak of water. Heirii detected several chakra sources had appeared in the close vicinity. And looking around she could see that all the teams charged with guarding their respective Daimyo were there, along with four Konoha and Taki ANBU along with a few Taki jōnin. The jōnin-sensei of the Kiri team still held her hands in the appropriate seal of the jutsu she'd just unleashed dousing Naruto's jutsu.

"Cease any hostilities and we'll look away from these events," the leader of the Taki detachment said. The Iwa-nins backed away, discontent that they hadn't managed to hurt either of the two Konoha-nins while they sustained several injuries and one dead. Jiraiya released the Rasengan still spinning wildly in the palm of his hand, glad that they were interrupted before he had to go serious. He didn't know whether to feel offended that they thought that they could take him and his student down with just four ANBU and a genin team or flattered about the fact that they thought his student needed to be taken down by ANBU.

"We were just defending ourselves from them," Jiraiya explained before he walked off from the clearing with Naruto in tow, ordering the two female members of the team to come along as well.

Heirii looked up to see her jōnin-sensei give her the 'evil eye', wondering what the hell she had been doing at that place.

"I was merely observing Jiraiya the sannin when the Iwa team attacked," she explained and watched the man nod at the explanation before motioning for her to follow. The next meeting was going to be a pain she figured. The recent event could be seen as an act of war, something the five Daimyo had been discussing of how to avoid during the last week.

* * *

'_So much for peace talks,'_ Heirii thought as she listened to the ongoing yelling contest between the Fire Daimyo and the Earth Daimyo. A day ago the five Daimyo had been ready to wrap up the meeting after seven days of continuous meetings, today was supposed to only be a formality with the signing of the final documents, instead they were as good as back to square one, at least concerning the relations between Hi no Kuni and Tsuchi no Kuni.

"It's your fault since you choose a ninja that look so much like the scourge!" the Earth Daimyo accused. The arguments had only become sillier and sillier as the time drudged on.

"You need to have better control on your ninja, who knows who they might attack next, maybe the Kiri jōnin because she's got so long hair, or the young genin from Kumo since she's so young?" any credibility of the first part of the argument was lost when the Fire Daimyo said why they would be attacked.

"Oh, will you two just shut up for kami's sake, you've been arguing for four hours now, don't you tire," it was the blond ninja on the Konoha team that finally cracked, "They bloody attacked us, so what. It's not like we were injured, just add that Iwa pays some sort of tribute for it since it was non mission related and be done with it. Sign the treaties so we can all go home," a stunned silence reigned within the room for several minutes as all eyes focused upon the young genin whom had been the target for the attack.

"What, it's annoying to be here," Naruto said as he saw their incredulous faces never change. Jiriaya had a hard time to choose between laughing his eyes out of hitting Naruto hard enough to knock him out; and restrain himself from doing both acts at the same time.

"I have to agree with the boy," the Lightning Daimyo said slowly as he turned to face his companions, "We've delayed here long enough, I probably have a huge stack of paperwork on my desk that needs signing now that I've been out of the country for over a week," the five Daimyos moaned unision at the thought of the stacks of paperwork just waiting for them.

"We'll agree to pay a small tribute to Konoha, one-hundred thousand ryō should be sufficient since it was semi mission related," the earth Daimyo said displeased with the outcome.

"We will accept that," the fire Daimyo said, "Now remember that in the next chūnin exams we expect at least a team from each country to visit us in Hi no Kuni,"

The five leaders bid each other farewell, the Earth and Fire Daimyos shaking each others hands with more than necessary force.

"We'll show your weakling Ninja that we're the strongest," the Earth Daimyo said before he walked out the meeting chamber.

"Say that when your ANBU doesn't get beaten by a mere genin,"

'_Mere genin!? A mere genin! I'm gonna be the future Hokage of Konoha old man, I'll show you a mere genin!'_ it took all of Naruto's self restraint not to yell and rush his own Daimyo.

* * *

"Chizuro-chan," Kakashi's sweet tone made her cringe.

'_What does he want now?'_ she thought deflated, "What is it Kakashi?" she asked as she turned to face the elder man.

"Remember the bet we made?" Kakashi said, eye-smiling at the younger woman.

"He is perverted; he just won't admit it openly!" Chizuro wailed.

"It's still past the time limit when you returned, meaning you still failed even if he had been the biggest pervert in the elemental countries. So just pay up,"

Grumbling Chizuro started to count the bills as she watched Kakashi's smile widen behind that infernal mask. "So how's your team?" she knew that ought to perturb Kakashi.

In smug satisfaction she watched the inkling of a grin disappear from the mask, "Uchiha is a pompous boy, Haruno his fangirl while Aburame is an almost complete mystery that's gotten a few wisdom words from Naruto and follows them beautifully. But somehow their synergy is improving,"

"So when's the time for a C-rank?"

"Sometime next week or so, I'll have them go through a few more horrible D-ranks before that,"

"Tora for the rest of the week it is then," Chizuro said gleefully, before Kakashi could voice his displeasure about the idea even being proposed she'd disappeared.

"Damn her," Kakashi muttered before he withdrew his only consolation, an orange book; soon the man was giggling just like Sakura when she thought of marrying Sasuke.

* * *

"Finally we can go home!" Naruto exclaimed as he reached the lobby where his teammates stood waiting. The ANBU along with the Shugonin Jūnishi were charged with the protection of the Daimyo during the trip back to Tengai.

"We won't be going home, it's time for the second part of the mission now," Jiraiya said, surprising the three genin, "We'll be traveling towards Nami no kuni, I have a few informants to meet and the Hokage wants us to investigate the situation there,"

"I couldn't help but overhear that you were going to Nami, coincidentally we will be going there as well for our own investigation," Mei said as she walked over towards the Konoha team, her team tight on her heels, "So why don't we join up for the journey,"

"I don't see why not," Jiraiya said with a lecherous grin, he might not have been able to peep at the female Konoha ANBU, but now chance to peep at the Kiri jōnin would surely be presented during the five day journey to Nami or during the stay there. There was something about the woman that nagged him at the back of his head, somehow he recognized her beside what he had read about her file he'd gotten after the first meeting.

* * *

"Jiraiya-sama, I'd never thought you were the author of those scandalous books," Mei said when Jiraiya revealed the fact he was the author of the Icha Icha series. The three Konoha genin simply scoffed at that, the man was the biggest pervert the world had ever seen.

"Would you please sign mine?" six shocked genin stood awestruck as they watched the Kiri jōnin retrieve a copy of the book from her bosom. Jiraiya took utmost care when he took the book and signed it, a trail of blood slowly trickling down from his nose.

"Well then, let's move again, just another hour before we reach the coastline," Mei said, the genin numbly followed, any conversation having reached a total halt among the genin as they were all shellshocked from the revelation just moments ago.

* * *

The Hokage tower was in complete darkness, save for a single room in the basement where a single candle was lit as a woman frantically searched the old ANBU archives for a specific document.

'_Nami no Kuni, there's something about that place that just bodes ill,'_ she thought as she found yet closed another cabinet without any luck. _'Ten minutes have already passed, the guards will come here in about two minutes, where the hell is it,' _she knew that the Hokage kept a record of every mission somewhere, even the most secret ones had a document with at least some of the information regarding it.

'_Found it!'_ the documents in question had been sealed within the back of a cabinet, somewhat unorthodox hiding place for ANBU missions that took place during her time within ANBU. Usually the covert ANBU missions were sealed into the bottom of the drawers of the D-rank missions. Unlike how it was currently where the ANBU had their own mission room that had several layers of seals which required both the ANBU commander and the Hokage present to open the vault containing the documents. _'Damnit, another one of his creations. Looks like I'll have to go there and relay the information,' _Returning the document to its rightful place she left the room just as the guard unlocked the room.

* * *

"We'd like to go out to Nami no Kuni,"

"Sorry, no can do, Gatō doesn't allow anyone to enter the area," the fisher they had asked looked fearfull, to deny ninja a service took a lot of guts, apparently the fisherman was more afraid of this Gatō person than the eight ninja standing in front of him.

"We'll pay you good," Mei said as she took out a rather fat wad of ryō notes.

"You'll get the boat for that, I'm however not coming with you," the fisher took the money from Mei and left hastily. The eight ninjas stood there for a moment before Mei moved to the boat, sitting down by the bow. "Someone else is driving; I've never handled one of these before,"

"I want to!" Naruto exclaimed as he jumped into the boat, landing just next to the rudder control.

"Sure," Mei said, the ever present smile shining as the three konoha ninjas cringed.

The eight ninjas were off at a extraordinary speed, blasting through the waves as Naruto pushed the engine to its limits.

"Hana, Kurenai, remind me to never let Naruto drive a boat again," Jiraiya said as he wobbily planted his feet on the ground. Out of the entire party of eight only two looked happy, Naruto who seemed to be excited beyond measure and Mei who still had a pleasant smile.

"Naruto-kun… do that again and I'll kill you," Mei's words sent chills down Naruto's spine, she looked happy but still managed to say such a threat laced with malice without losing the pleasant smile in the least.

"Your teacher is scary," Naruto said to the three Kiri genin once Mei was out of earshot as they walked towards the fishing village that was the capital of the country.

"We know," the three replied in unison.

"You don't want to meet her next week, that's when her…" Jin, the oldest of the three Kiri genin halted his speech as he saw Mei turn her face around, a quizzical but pleasant smile directed at him, "never mind,"

"What, tell me!" Naruto said, hating to not hear the end of something, "Is it like Hana-chan and Kurenai-chan when they have…" before Naruto could finish the sentence he was sent tumbling as his two fellow genin sent him flying with two good punches with perfect timing.

"Not a word Naruto," Hana hissed as Naruto rubbed his sore jaw, Hana had socked him real good.

"But…" Naruto started but paused when he sensed several strong chakra sources in the trees behind him.

"Who dare's to trespass on Gatō's lands," a burly man asked, a long nodachi hefted over his shoulders.

"Trespass? We're here on official business to conduct investigations on the behalf of Konoha and Kiri," Jiraiya said, "Since when was this property of the Gatō Trading Company's executive director,"

"So you're here to investigate you say?" the leader of the mercenaries said as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Kill them,"

Out of the forest a large mass of mercenaries and nuke-nin charged the two teams. Oddly the stronger of the chakra sources remained, but soon the Konoha team figured out why; they let the small fry tire them a little before they would come in and reap the kills.

A mist started to roll in over the fighting area just as the leader of the mercenary band left the field, running for his life.

"So many choices, what to go for?" a voice echoed over the area, the location of the speaker impossible to distinguish.

"Zabuza!" Mei cried out upon hearing the voice of the unseen jutsu user, her smile dropping for the first time during the journey. As she charged towards the forest where she knew the man would be she felt a sharp pain in her left thigh, looking down she could see a senbon needle sticking out.

* * *

"Kakashi-sensei," Shino said quietly as he looked towards his team captain.

"What is it?"

"My bugs tell me that there's blood in that direction, possibly the results of battle judging from how much it is," Shino informed the teacher as he pointed down a small road to their left.

"Kiba, can you smell anything?" Kakashi silently asked the genin walking behind him.

"Yeah, there's fresh blood in that direction," Kiba said as walked a small distance down the small road.

"Prepare yourselves just in case, protect Tazuna-san," the nine genin all formed a protective circle as they walked forward through the thick mist that lay over the area.

"Duck!" Kanae Uchiha yelled as she pushed down two of her own students. A barrage of kunai sailed harmlessly above the teams and their client, the three jōnin prepared themselves for another attack, but five minutes passed without anything happening. Kakashi signaled for the others to remain in place while he moved in the direction where the attack had originated from.

"I think it was just a stray attack, there's plenty of kunai here as well," Kakashi informed the teams.

"Yeah, Akamaru says the source of the blood smell isn't for another two hundred meters, and…" before Kiba finished he started to sprint straight forward, breaking the formation, he didn't make it past Kakashi though as the elder man grabbed the boy by the collar.

"Where do you think you're going?" Kakashi asked the boy who forgone his orders.

"Nee-chan is there! What's she doing here, she was supposed to be in Taki wasn't she?" Kiba said as he frantically tried to wrench himself free of Kakashi's grasp. Neither Kakashi was aware as of why the team under Chizuro and Jiraiya's guidance was here.

After a few moments of struggle Kakashi surprisingly released the grip on the boy's clothing, he himself starting to run forward to reach the scene at where the battle took place.

A loud explosion was heard and suddenly the mist diminished slightly as the hot air evaporated the mist and the shockwave pushed the remaining mist away from the middle of the battlefield.

Kakashi could see a Kiri jōnin sitting on the ground, her legs peppered with senbon needles as she was surrounded by several ice blocks that looked a lot like mirrors; one of them singeing badly. Naruto was close to her and deflected attacks directed towards the woman. Both Hana and Kurenai were engaged in battle with two chūnin level nuke-nins from Kiri while two Kiri genin stood around the body of a third fending off a few Taki genin nuke-nin. The only one missing from team Chizuro was the leader of the group, Jiraiya.

"Kakashi, stop your genin from getting here, we're dealing with Momochi Zabuza," Jiraiya's voice called from the mist, moments later a loud clash could be heard; probably Zabuza's large sword had been parried by Jiraiya.

"Rasengan!" Kakashi narrowly dodged the rotating flying form of Momochi Zabuza, and as he skidded on the ground the man suddenly exploded into a puddle of water, "Damn he's got too many clones that man,"

* * *

"Mei-nee, I'll get you out of here," Naruto said as he deflected another senbon flung by his opponent. The ninja he met, Haku, had conjured weird ice mirrors that surrounded the Kiri jōnin and within moments of the summoning Mei's lower body had been hit from almost every direction, disabling her legs as muscles and nerves via pressure points.

"How, he's much faster than you are, and even that explosive note of yours only managed to damage it for a second," Mei said, her smile long since faded.

"I promise that I'll do it somehow, and to keep my promises is my nindo," Naruto declared as he mentally went through a list of what he could do, so far not even his strongest katon jutsu had managed to make more than the ice a few millimeters thinner before it reshaped again. Fūton jutsus had yielded a result that was better than katon jutsus, but not nearly sufficient enough. He figured that if he used his strongest explosive notes the mirror might have shattered, but no such luck; he had seen the mirror crack if however slightly before being reformed again, he needed something that grinded its way through the mirrors in addition to packing a large punch.

His opponent clearly had the advantage of speed, and there was no way he would be able to catch up, the fact he managed to deflect the attacks was a pure miracle, but came from the fact that Chizuro had called flinging senbon needles at him at random times was 'training,' parrying and dodging needles was like a second nature to Naruto.

As Naruto went down the list of jutsu he quickly came to the conclusion he would have to use 'that' jutsu after all. Just as he parried another senbon he readied his hand and started to collect chakra, soon a whirling ball of chakra was there before he rushed a mirror.

"Rasengan!" as the ball of chakra collided with the chakra infused ice nothing but a slow grinding occurred for several seconds before it started to with ease go through the ice as it started to crack before shattering into a thousand pieces, cutting Naruto's cheek in the process. After the first mirror fell soon the others met the same fate while Naruto created a shadow clone that carried a still somewhat chocked Mei away from the battle.

"Kakashi-san, take her," the clone said as it handed the woman to the silver haired man before it went out of existence, leaving a befuddled Kakashi with a silently crying woman in his arms. The silver haired jōnin was still stunned regarding the technique Naruto had used to crush the mirrors. Now that he thought about it Naruto did have a striking resemblance with his late teacher.

"Onee-chan!" Kiba's loud voice snapped him back into mission mode, temporarily moving any thoughts of his late teacher into the back of his mind.

"Kiba, stand back. This isn't something you'll be able to handle," Kakashi said as he back towards where the three genin teams stood.

"What shall we do Kakashi-san," Kanae asked as she eyed the ongoing battles.

"Let them battle it out, it's not like we can add something to the fight except more confusion and more targets for Zabuza to attack, besides I think they're finishing up here now," just then the ninja whom Naruto had been fighting came rolling along the ground, landing in a heap before Kakashi's feet, several senbon needles having temporarily paralyzed him.

"Well that's one," Asuma said as he watched Naruto move to help the other genin with their opponents, quickly turning the tides clearly into the Konoha and Kiri ninjas favor as he swept away one nuke-nin with a fūton jutsu, the others soon scattering from the area as the mist started to roll out, revealing Zabuza shoulder deep in a small swamp, kunai held to his head.

* * *

Naruto stared at the former Kiri jōnin, known as the demon of the mist. His hands were tied together in such a manner that using hand seals would be impossible and his weapon had been stored in another room. The chakra draining seals made by Jiraiya was another safety measure set up, even though the largest

"Why do I have to watch you…?" Naruto asked even though Zabuza was unable to answer due to the gag.

"Since the other teams are out protecting the old bridge builder we're stuck here until they return, after that we're going to find Gatō since he's the root of the problems here," Jiraiya said, Narutos simply nodded at that, by now Jiraiya's sudden appearances seemed to have become a habit to handle.

"So if I got it right then this Gatō came here, his company usurped the power of the country and now he controls the entire economy and by hindering the construction of the bridge towards Hi no Kuni they can't break free of his high tolls,"

"Something like that yeah," Jiraiya said as he inspected the seals once more, finding them to be just as he wanted them, "You can go and get something to eat while I watch him, and do remember to get something for Mei to eat, her genin are still unconscious so they can't do it, I doubt she'll be walking soon,"

"Yeah," Naruto said as he left the room. The kiri team had been pressed hard; one of the genin had been killed while the other two had been moderately injured and the jōnin of the team was most likely out of action for an entire week. Naruto had experienced a similar thing when he was training, though it was a punishment from one of the ANBU when he had questioned the point of being taught about pressure points and how senbon could be useful, something he'd come to regret when he couldn't effectively walk for a week while it hurt like hell.

"Naruto," Mei said upon seeing Naruto entering her room, a box of sushi in his left hand and a box of ramen in his right.

"Here, eat some," Naruto said, putting forward the box of sushi in front of the bed ridden woman. To his immense surprise she managed to snatch the box of ramen from him and was soon slurping down the contents contently.

"My miso ramen!" Naruto cried in outrage of losing his own meal,

"Too bad, it's mine now," Mei said, flashing him a pleasant smile before she took another mouthful.

Grumpily Naruto sat down on the chair beside her bed, slowly eating the sushi he had bought for her. "I'm sorry about Yakita,"

"It happens, they were dealing with opponents more powerful than themselves, I'm happy two of them survived, hadn't you been there I would most likely be walking home alone, or not at all," Mei said, a small frown marring her face. "What did you do to Zabuza?"

"We've got him locked up in a room while his accomplice is in another one, guarded by Hana-chan and Kurenai-chan,"

"The ninja with the kekkei genkai? So he survived your jutsu," Mei said thoughtfully.

"She actually," Naruto corrected, blushing at the memory of finding that one out.

* * *

He was going to take care of the wounds that he had inflicted on the shinobi and was undressing him when he came in contract with a soft mound that shouldn't be there, rapidly Naruto removed the robe, revealing a tightly bandaged chest. _'another cop can't hurt, right?'_ Naruto thought after he'd removed the bandages, just to make sure there were no untreated wounds he would tell his teammates.

That second cop without bandages had hurt as Kurenai had just walked into the room as he made sure that they were real, the result was that he got a good pummeling from the genjutsu expert.

* * *

"What'll you do about them, she's also from Kirigakure though she was never a trained ninja part of your forces," Naruto asked.

"Per the rules we will take Zabuza Momochi back to the village for an official execution, his accomplice however is up for you guys to deal with since she attacked you and doesn't have any ties to the ninja force within the village; besides she would just be killed outright in the village even if she wasn't found guilty for taking arms against us considering her kekkei genkai,"

"Well, that settles that then, I'll inform sensei about it, Mei-nee," Naruto said as he walked out of Mei's room with the empty food boxes.

"Naruto, just who I was looking for," Hana said as he walked out of Mei's room, "The other genin are back, Kakashi's team is guarding that Tazuna while the others are here to take care of guarding the surviving nuke-nins we've captured,"

"So we'll be going to investigate this Gatō fellow," Kurenai said as she walked out from around the corner followed by Jiraiya, "We've got the location of his house, now we just have to go there and ask him,"

* * *

Chizuro peered out at the large complex that was Gatō's mansion; unexpectantly the man didn't seem to have any nuke-nins to his service, only an impressive amount of ordinary mercenaries. From the unravaged appearance of the surrounding area it seemed like none of the genin teams had reached the area yet, _'now that I think about it… Kiba is supposedly just like his older sister while Miki loves explosives just as much as Naruto…' _her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a loud explosion from the main gate. _'Looks like they've arrived,'_

To her surprise it wasn't the genin teams she had expected that emerged from the smoke and dust left after the use of the high-yield explosive notes, instead it was her own team; quickly and efficiently neutralizing the mercenaries.

"Jiraiya," as she landed beside the white haired sannin she was forced to block an attack from the man before he relaxed slightly,

"Chizuro," he acknowledged, "What brings you here, I thought you would still be home recuperating," he looked over his shoulder to see that the genin were quickly mopping up the area, knocking out the last mercenaries while Naruto had several clones cover any possible escape routes, the area had been effectively secured by three genin with minimal aid from the white-haired man.

"I would be, hadn't this disturbing mission landed upon Konoha's plate," she hissed.

"No, the protecting Tazuna mission is all messed up; Nami no Kuni was a project of the old man. Gatō was given free hands over the area; he even set him up with nuke-nins to use to cull the land. All in exchange for parts of the income of course, thirty percent of the earnings," Chizuro said.

"Well, that explains Zabuza I suppose…"

"You've met with them already?" Chizuro asked surprised, "What about the other teams, any casualties,"

"None, the Konoha teams arrived just as we were finished up, however the Kiri team we traveled with suffered one fatality and three severely injured. I think I can see why three Konoha teams were sent on the mission now while we were sent as a pre emptive force," Jiraiya said as they walked to the main building where the last mercenaries and most likely the leader were housed.

"Well, since you've already cleared up most of the mess here I'll be taking my leave again. My doctor will have a fit over this," Chizuro said before jumping off again.

Watching her disappear Jiraiya shook his head, _'that girl has some weird habits.'_ Now only the slowest process remained, milking the man for information. Idly he wondered if they would be forced to do it the hard way or if the man was easily intimidated.

"Let's do this kids," Jiraiya said as he bust in the front door, tightly followed by his three students whom hadn't noticed the brief arrival of Chizuro.

* * *

Trivia:

Kekkei genkai: Bloodline limit, i.e Sharingan and the Byakugan. Should be pretty common knowledge tho.

These terms may interchangeably be used by me, sometimes they just slip as one version of another,

Kaminari no Kuni: Country of Lightning/Lightning Country

Tsuchi no Kuni: Country of Earth/Earth Country

Hi no Kuni: Country of Fire/Fire Country

Mizu no Kuni: Country of Water/Water Country

Kaze no Kuni: Country of Wind/Wind country

* * *

A/N: Well, I'm starting to take out a few underlying facts now that'll play big role later on now, if you read closely I'm sure some of you guys will be able to figure out a trivia fact or two from this chapter. From here on however my releases will go on a much slower tempo most likely as my new work will most likely give me minimal amount of time being able to sit by a computer and type down a chapter, I'll be having a notepad with me, however it doesn't flow as fluently with that when I write.

Made a minor change with Heirii's name in the previous chapter, had it as Hirano in chapter 10 when I wrote it but decided to change it when I was working on chapter 11, however I forgot to go back and change it before I posted chapter 10, so here it's evidently Shuzen, this has since been corrected in chapter 10 to add consistency.


	12. Cleaning up

"This is a breach of the contract!" a short port man said as Naruto's clones started to knock out the mercenaries hired by him.

"Sorry, but the old man has given up on you, your rule is over as of now," Jiraiya said as he walked towards the merchant who'd proclaimed himself the ruler of Nami no Kuni, "Any last words or a reason as to why I should spare your life?"

The port man looked to his right and left but as far as he could see all of his men were tied up, literally. At that moment he regretted that he hadn't hired a few more nuke-nin even though they were expensive. "Information, I can provide you with information,"

"What kind of information," Jiraiya questioned, his neutral mask in place. If the man didn't come straight out with what he knew then he would have to take the hard way he supposed.

Rapidly the port man went through everything he knew; sorting out what was most likely to catch the white-haired man's attention to spare him initially. He was one of the sannin, that much he knew, "Orochimaru!"

Involuntarily Jiraiya jerked his head up in attention at the mention of his old team-mate.

"Orochimaru of the sannin has left Akatsuki and created his own village, Otogakure he called it," This was all new information for Jiraiya, how the creation of a whole village had slipped past his spy network was something worthy of investigating.

"There's been some rumors regarding the coming chūnin examinations in Konoha, supposedly Iwa and Oto are allies, Suna is on the negotiation table for an attack upon Konoha during that time frame. My knowledge of these matters is due to an operation of that scale needs some people willing to sponsor the preparations," Gatō explained, before he could continue however Jiraiya raised a hand, signaling him to stop.

"Hana, knock him out and tie him up, we're leaving," before Gatō could protest a hand connected squarely and precisely against his neck, knocking him out.

"Where are we going Jiraiya-sensei?" Naruto asked as the team rushed out the building, Gatō slung over Jiraiya's shoulder.

"We're heading back to Konoha with haste, this guy is the gold mine of information it would seem. Naruto, you go and pick up Zabuza's companion since she falls under our jurisdiction, I trust you know how to get back to Konoha,"

"Roger that," Naruto said before he leapt away from the group, all in all the detour had him lagging behind his team an hour, and slowly the distance was increasing as Jiraiya was able to travel faster thanks to his summons.

* * *

"Take him to Ibiki then for further questioning, he'll be able to extort any useful information," Hiruzen said as he rubbed his temples. What he'd learned so far was no good, Orochimaru along with Iwa planning an attack against them, with Suna possibly being in the cahoots with them. Oto was one of the villages that had requested to be part of the exams, and they had been granted a few spots, he couldn't justify reverting the decision now lest he'd give away what he knew.

"What to do about this mess?" the old man wondered out loud, completely forgetting that he had yet to dismiss the team which had brought Gatō to him.

"Excuse me Hokage-sama," Kurenai's hesitant voice drew him out of his own little bubble, "But why not play along with their game, convert their trap into a trap of our own? What better way to crush our foes than to neutralize the threat as quickly as possible, prepare the village for the attack without arousing suspicion,"

"How do you propose we do that?" the Hokage asked, how the girl managed to see something he was not able to was unbelievable at best.

"Recall the people from Ten no Hi, make some minor changes in the village defense, do more evacuation drills to lessen the civilian casualties once they really need to know where to escape. Any long term hunting missions should temporarily be put on hold unless they are hot on the heels of their targets, prepare more traps surrounding the village to stop any major invasion force to break through, there's various ways to increase the chances of the village withstanding an attack,"

"Yeah, we can even claim that they're training seals and stuff made by someone training in the way of seals, I even got a nifty one that doesn't even look like an explosive note," Naruto's addition had surprised the entire room.

"When did you learn to be sneaky Naruto?" Hana voiced the one question everyone had,

"Always been, just don't feel like doing it usually," Naruto responded blowing a raspberry in her direction as he climbed through the window fully, Zabuza's companion slung over his shoulder.

"Back to the matter, Kurenai I'm fully aware that using their own trap upon them is probably the wisest choice, I'm however unsure just how to proceed that's all, however your idea of recalling the personnel at Ten no Hi is good and something I hadn't thought of. Now Naruto, who is that that you've brought with you?"

"This is Haku, she's from Kiri though she was never a ninja there so she isn't a nuke-nin, since she's got a kekkei genkai Mei-nee told me to bring her here since she wouldn't be treated well in Kiri,"

"Mei-nee?" Hiruzen asked Jiraiya, a quizzical look on his face,

"Terumī Mei, Hokage-sama, the jōnin-sensei of the Kiri team that accompanied us to Nami no Kuni," Jiraiya explained.

"Ah, very well," Hiruzen said as he took a deep puff from his pipe, "I'll have Ibiki go over her and from there we'll go over what can be done about her, Naruto take her to ANBU headquarters, they'll know what to do. The rest of you are dismissed," as the door was closed the elderly man sat there in a long silence, so many loose ends, he knew he soon would have to sort everything out or something big would come down on him. He had the feeling something was already working against him. "I'm too old for this," he muttered as he peered up that mountain side, more specifically his late successor, "You should be in this seat, not I,"

* * *

"This is boring, weren't there some bad guys that were supposed to threaten the old man?" Kiba wailed as he stood guard by the bridge along with the rest of his team.

"Father told me that Jiraiya-sama's team have already dealt with the situation, we just have to remain here until the bridge is complete and then we'll be able to leave," Miki said while she casually juggled a few kunai.

"Nee-chan took all the action from us? Kami-sama, first they take the welcome committee and then they take care of the whole thing not leaving a single scrap for us? That's bad!"

"Kiba, may I remind you that it was no child's play what they did. Considering their first opponents they should be glad they came out of that unscathed, at least the genin. That team is two years ahead of you, at the minimum. Their total experience is no laughing matter, possibly you three could defeat one of them in the state you are in; if you're really lucky," Kanae's words were somewhat harsh, but true. She had no visions of grandeur regarding her team. If she ever challenged team Chizuro on a team spar she had no doubt her team would be utterly crushed by the older genin.

"Kiba-kun, it's nothing to be sad about, intead we can use this time to train,"

"That's the spirit Hinata," Kanae said, flashing the young girl thumbs up as the white haired girl tried to console the now downtrodden boy.

"As troublesome as it is, we're here to relieve you guys," a voice interrupted any further conversation between the members of team eight. Standing there was the Ino-Shika-Cho trio along with their jōnin sensei Sarutobi Asuma.

"Sounds like you guys are aiming for the chūnin exams coming in the next few months in Konoha," the two teams perked their ears at that, they had heard nothing of a chūnin exam in the works. Judging from the look on Asuma's face he'd said too much.

"So there is an exam coming up back home, I knew it!"

"Yes Miki, but you didn't hear that from Asuma, rather it was your lazy father who had a drink or two too much and gave you that piece of information," Kanae said sweetly as she beckoned her team to follow her as she left the build site. "Now then, let's head back to Tazuna-san's home and begin your training, you're gonna ace that exam and be the best,"

"Hell yeah," though neither Hinata nor Miki were as vocal as their male counterpart they gave firm nods of agreement.

* * *

_Two months later_

"Is this good enough Naruto-san?" Miki asked her blond companion who stood above her. He'd been overseeing some special training that she'd requested from him to be done after her own team's training had been finished. It was probably the hundredth time that evening that she had done the same exercise, so far none had been approved by her "teacher".

Taking the still slightly wet note from Miki's hand Naruto inspected it; the writings were in the correct places, no faults with the seals. "Yupp, looks good to me, now you'll just have to apply chakra to it, do it only in small quantities though, so we can check if it really is correct, better to have the explosion with only a very small amount of chakra charged into it rather than a full scale explosive note, that way we can check how your ability to make a wide range of different notes is,"

After charging a small amount of chakra into the note Miki placed it against a tree and backed up a large distance, and waited for the explosion, just like designed the note exploded no less or more than 10 seconds after the second application of chakra to the secondary seal array acting as a safety.

"About the size of a firecracker, perfect, now time for some full scale ones," Naruto said with a grin. Just as he was about to set Miki to work with making another note Kakashi appeared at the corner. Apparently their secret training ground behind the Hokage tower had been discovered.

"Naruto, if you mind I'd like to have Miki back, she's got team training early tomorrow morning, and I think you too have training to do, best not to anger Chizuro by oversleeping, right?"

"Righteo," Naruto said, his complexion a few shades whiter than usual. He watched Kakashi along with Miki disappear into the night of Konoha, "Never figured him to be the one to wonder where his daughter is,"

"Ya know, if it had been my daughter and I knew she was hanging around with you I'd be worried kiddo," Chizuro's voice caught the blond by surprise, he'd become adept at sensing Chizuro's presence during the long time they trained, but somehow she had managed to elude him this time.

"What are you doing here sensei?"

"What do you think Naruto?"

"Um, visiting your awesome student?" he asked with a smile.

"Not right, you're not my awesome student; I have three excellent students though, and you may just be one of them, and I now have an assignment for you,"

* * *

"Well, let's move then Hikari, Yami!" Kurenai only saw a blur as her opponent and her companions moved after Chizuro had thrusted her hands downwards, signaling the start of the spar. A cool wind drew in over the training field, sending a chill down her spine; spring hadn't really come in force just yet.

"Where are they?" she muttered out loud. It didn't take that long before the first dog attacked from her left, a quick sidestep and the threat was avoided. _'below,'_ she jumped into a tree and just narrowly avoided Hana grabbing her legs.

"That's only worked once Hana, just give it up!"

"Never hurts to try, Naruto has fallen for it several times,"

"Hey, doesn't count since it wasn't during spars!" Naruto called out from the sidelines, the movement enough to shake his concentration as the wind he manipulated around him stopped to work, resulting in a hard impact between the ground and his back.

"Gaki, concentrate on your wind meditation instead of what they say about you, we all know you're the easiest to trick here," Chizuro said as she attempted to stifle her laughter.

"Wouldn't be a sport to spar you guys otherwise, I'm just too awesome in combat for this team!" Naruto said brashly.

"Kurenai, keep mind on your spar instead of what Naruto and I say," Chizuro yelled out just in time for the red eyed girl to react, instead of a solid punch to her chest the closed hand of her opponent struck her right arm.

The fight seemed to drag out, as Kuranai simply stayed on the defensive, moving out from any attacks Hana and her dogs sent her way.

"Boring," Chizuro exclaimed after watching the two kunoichi fight for half an hour without any sign of a coming victor, "Team spar begin!"

As the words left Chizuro's lips Kurenai released the jutsu she had been planned for since the beginning of the spar.

Hana's vision was reduced to zero as a sudden darkness encroached around her, and she felt something akin to water traveling up her body. As she tried to breathe she found herself unable to do so, quickly her panic started to mount up as whatever she tried didn't help. It was with an intense relief her entire world went white, accompanied by the sound of loud bangs.

"Victor…" Chizuro started to proclaim, both Hana and Kurenai were on the ground, a few clones belonging to Naruto pinning them there. She was stopped however when to her great surprise both Kurenai and Hana appeared from the ground, both delivering solid hits to the boy, knocking him out and thus erasing the clones from existence.

"I give," Hana said as she dropped on the ground, her breathing labored.

"Kurenai it seems," Chizuro scowled. Kurenai just gave her a grin, it hadn't been hard to see through their teacher's thinking, let Hana and herself tire themselves out against each other and then send in Naruto in to mop the floor with them; it was just her style.

"Get up Naruto!" Chizuro said as she walked over to the downed blond, giving him a sharp kick in the ribs for good measure, "you just cost me a bet with the girls, so you're paying for the lunch today,"

Grumpily and rubbing the sore spots on his body, courtesy to his female team members, he slowly stood up as they started to walk towards the center of Konoha, he attempted to steer them towards Ichiraku, but the attempt was foiled as he passed by a bbq restaurant that Chizuro had heard one of her fellow jōnin recommend.

"We're eating here!" the strawberry-blonde declared before marching inside.

* * *

"Hokage-sama, it happened again," the matter of discussion was highly disturbing, amidst their ranks they had a spy with access to highly classified files, and now another file had disappeared.

"Which file was it this time?" the tired Hokage asked. The spy managed to evade all of the traps set up to protect those files, and circumvent the seal system protecting them once the traps had been disabled.

"Project Yuki, the entire original file is gone,"

"What is it they are after?" the ANBU commander asked, the files that had been stolen so far were not related to the village's defenses nor directly connected to secret techniques that Konoha held in the secret files.

"I'm not sure, but we need to tighten security even more it seems. Along with that line, it may be time deal with any other loose ends; I trust you have all that is needed for project Yuki already Sugabe?" the Hokage asked the director of Konoha's military research institute.

"Yes, we have all we need," the man responded, "There's nothing more to be gained from additional tests. The additional data from project Arishihi has been recompiled again, so we have all we need from there as well,"

"Well then, clean out all the unnecessary _'material'_ then, Tengu will see to it I trust?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama," the ANBU commander said as he walked towards the office door.

"Oh, and see to that the little failures from Orochimaru's experiment is removed as well," the Hokage said, stopping the ANBU for a moment before the man nodded and walked out.

"Well then Hokage-sama, I hope we find the culprit soon,"

"So do I Sugabe, if there was nothing else I bid you a good night,"

* * *

"Hurry up with it Kame, we need to get out here ASAP to meet up with Ōkami, Ahoudori and squad eight" the ANBU with a rat mask said to her companion who carried their captive.

"Jeez, it's not like someone's gonna come here and interrupt us, besides we got squad twenty-three and fourteen to cover the entrances to this place, you're way too concerned about non-existing threats Nezumi,"

"The commander said to be careful, the most logical suspect would be within our own ranks since they have infiltrated the archives protected within the ANBU headquarters!"

"Well, then…" their conversation came to a halt as they entered the chamber where they were to meet up with their two squadmates. The floor had a neat amount of blood still running out from the bodies of their comrades, sitting on their knees in the middle of the small ring of dead ANBU surrounding them, still wearing the blindfolds they had been given when they were taken to the execution chamber.

Kame unceremoniously dropped the girl on his back while he withdrew his ninja-to. He may not have a clue as to why the people in the room were to be killed, but the commander had told him it was a matter of village security. He was about to slice into the girl, but a mere moment before the blade would connect three shuriken hit his arm, rendering it useless, his hand dropping the blade before it could deal the killing blow, only inflicting a minor cut on the girl's left arm.

Nezumi moved in the direction from where the projectiles had come from, she wasn't disappointed as just a mere moments later she saw several glimmering objects head towards her, with a quick seal sequence she unleashed a great ball of fire, neutralizing the metal objects. She saw someone move in the light of the fireball, narrowly avoiding being incinerated. She was just about to follow up the technique with another fireball, but an incredible pain erupted from her lower abdomen. Looking down she could see her teammate's ninja-to, now in the hands of a stranger. Once more pain flared through her as the blade was jerked out, as she fell she could see as Kame was decapitated while her own vision deteriorated as the weakness was spreading throughout her body.

"Why?" she weakly asked the attacker.

"It's sad that it's come to this, but it's time for some change here. I'd rather not have to kill you guys, but is is necessary for the change to happen since you're aware of these guys' identities, and we can't have that. You were just in the wrong place ANBU-chan," the mysterious attacker said before making a single handseal, several kage bunshin appearing and helping to move the should-be executed prisoners.

* * *

"How'd this happen Tengu?" the Hokage asked as he surveyed the scene where eight of his ANBU had died.

"I'm afraid I don't know Hokage-sama, we had two teams covering the entrances to this place, so how they managed to get inside is unfathomable," the ANBU commander responded, still in shock.

"Any leads?"

"None my lord, the perpetrators have managed to get rid of any tracks, only used the ANBU's own weapons to kill them as well,"

"So we have several liabilities at large now?" the Hokage questioned. This could be some heavy political leverage if it was one of his enemies that got aware of what the people rescued knew.

"Have any evidence of this erased, I'll take care of the paperwork and have them listed as killed/missing in a S-class mission, their bodies were never found," Hiruzen said before he walked out of the chamber, the spy seemed to have much more knowledge than he would have liked. Not only did he have to worry about what Ibiki had found out from Gatō, but now this as well. He knew he had to take an unorthodox method to help turn the coming exams in Konoha's favor if the information extracted was true.

* * *

"So, do you accept the mission?"

"Yes, as long as we receive the pay of a Konoha A-rank mission,"

"It'll be sorted, now go and inform the team in that case, the mission starts in a month, more information will be provided at a later date,"

The only sign of the meeting was the crumpling burning piece of paper on the ground; 'Konoha Chūnin exam infiltration and elimination of viable targets,' was the only text that remained before that too was eaten by the red flames, turning it to ash.

* * *

**A/N:** Long time eh? Haven't had so much time for writing with the new work taking up much of my time and energy, but at least here's a new chapter. I've had a hard time coming up with a way to formulate my way towards the Chūnin exams, but hopefully I'm starting to get up a decent pace on the writing again soon.

As always, please leave a review, constructive criticism is always appreciated. (Just saying you like the story is fine as well, some motivation is always nice.) :)


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